Nearly 90m displaced face climate risks, UN says

Nearly 90 million refugees and other forcibly displaced people face severe risks linked to a warming planet, the UN refugee agency said in a report released days before the COP31 climate conference in Turkey.

UNHCR said three-quarters of the world's displaced people live in countries facing severe exposure to climate-related hazards, including droughts, floods and extreme heat.

Anton Leis Garcia, UNHCR's assistant high commissioner for operations, said refugees face a “double injustice” because many have fled conflicts they did not cause and are now exposed to climate risks they contributed least to.

UNHCR said climate change is also threatening lasting solutions for displaced people. More than two-thirds of refugees who returned home during the first half of this year went back to countries highly vulnerable to climate hazards, the agency said.

In Syria, where nearly four million displaced people have recently returned, UNHCR said declining groundwater and climate shocks were threatening recovery. It cited flooding along the Euphrates River last May that damaged homes and displaced thousands again.

The agency also warned that by 2050, one in three refugee settlements across sub-Saharan Africa could face 100 or more days of dangerous heat each year.

UNHCR said weather-related disasters have caused more than 255 million internal displacements worldwide over the past decade, equal to about 70,000 a day. It said this year's exceptionally strong El Nino was expected to cause more displacement.

In East Africa, forecasts indicate severe flooding linked to El Nino could displace up to three million people across Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda by the end of 2026, UNHCR said.

The agency said only 10 percent of global climate finance goes to fragile and conflict-affected countries that host large populations of climate-exposed displaced people. It said it would use COP31 to call for refugees and other displaced people to be included in national climate plans and financing mechanisms.