Climate Change Forces 20 Million People To Flee Each Year, Says Oxfam
Source: DW
Climate-related catastrophes like floods and forest fires are driving millions of people from their homes every year, said anti-poverty NGO Oxfam. While no one is immune, people in poor countries are most at risk. Over the past decade, climate-fuelled disasters drove over 20 million people a year from their homes, concluded a report released by Oxfam on Monday.
The Oxfam study, titled "Forced from Home," was released as two weeks of UN climate negotiations kick-start in Madrid. It examined the numbers of people displaced inside their home countries by climate-fuelled disasters between 2008 and 2018, based on government and international agency data, as well as media reports. "Today people are seven times more likely to be internally displaced by cyclones, floods and wildfires as they are by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and three times more likely than by conflict," the report said.
While no one is immune, people in poor countries are most at risk, the NGO said. "People in low and lower-middle income countries such as India, Nigeria and Bolivia are over four times more likely to be displaced by extreme weather disasters than people in rich countries such as the United States." Seven of the top 10 countries with the highest displacement by proportion of their population were small island developing states, largely in the Pacific and the Caribbean, the report found.
Asia is the continent most affected, said Oxfam, noting that around 80% of all people displaced over the last decade live there. "Our governments are fuelling a crisis that is driving millions of women, men and children from their homes and the poorest people in the poorest countries are paying the heaviest price," said Chema Vera, Acting Executive Director of Oxfam International...
Read more: https://www.dw.com/en/climate-change-forces-20-million-people-to-flee-each-year-says-oxfam/a-51494606
New Oxfam Report, Dec. 2, 2019: Climate fuelled disasters number one driver of internal displacement globally forcing more than 20 million people a year from their homes, https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/forced-from-home-eng
Amina Ibrahim (50) arrived in the camp in Gunagado, Ethiopia in 2017 after the drought killed her family's cattle and an outbreak of disease endangered her family.
Residents brave the floods in Mazive, southern Mozambique, on April 28, 2019, just weeks after the country suffered one of the worst storms in its history.
More,
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/02/condemning-inaction-rich-nations-oxfam-unveils-report-showing-climate-related
= new reply since forum marked as read
