A devastating new United Nations report has revealed that climate-related disasters have forcibly displaced a staggering 250 million people worldwide over the past decade, averaging 70,000 individuals every single day.
The Climate Crisis as a Risk Multiplier
The UN refugee agency's comprehensive study, titled No Escape II: The Way Forward, identifies floods, storms, drought and extreme heat as primary drivers of this mass displacement. These weather events are intensifying conflicts and hunger across the globe while threatening food and water security through slower-onset disasters including desertification, rising sea levels and ecosystem destruction.
The climate emergency is rapidly worsening an already dire human rights situation, with 117 million people displaced by war, violence and persecution by mid-2025. The UNHCR describes the climate crisis as a "risk multiplier" that exposes and compounds existing inequalities and injustices, including the impact of conflict and forced displacement across borders.
Vulnerable Communities Bear the Brunt
Refugees and displaced populations, despite contributing minimally to climate change causes, are among the hardest hit by its effects. They often live in precarious physical and political conditions that leave them exceptionally vulnerable to climate impacts.
The report highlights several catastrophic events that demonstrate this alarming trend:
In May 2024, catastrophic flooding in Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul state killed 181 people and caused billions in damage. The disaster displaced 580,000 individuals, including 43,000 vulnerable refugees from Venezuela, Haiti and Cuba who were living in the most severely affected areas.
Earlier, Cyclone Mocha - the most destructive storm to hit Myanmar in years - made landfall in Rakhine state where 160,000 ethnic Rohingya have been confined to overcrowded camps since 2012. "We had very little to begin with," recounted Ma Phyu Ma, a 37-year-old internally displaced Rohingya. "The hut was our shelter. The boat and nets allowed us to fish. The clothes were my source of income. It is painful for me to lose everything."
Funding Crisis and Future Projections
Alarmingly, the number of countries reporting both conflict and disaster-related displacement has tripled since 2009. Yet fragile and conflict-affected nations hosting refugees receive only a quarter of the climate finance they desperately need.
Three-quarters of all refugees and displaced people now live in countries facing high or extreme exposure to climate-related hazards, with repeated displacement becoming increasingly common. Chad, one of the most politically fragile and climate-vulnerable countries, hosts over 1.4 million refugees and asylum seekers. In 2024 alone, floods forced more than 1.3 million people to flee their homes and camps - exceeding the total displacement of the previous 15 years combined.
The situation appears set to deteriorate further without radical intervention. By 2050, the hottest refugee camps could experience nearly 200 days of dangerous heat stress annually, posing serious health risks and potentially rendering many locations uninhabitable.
Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, issued a stark warning: "Funding cuts are severely limiting our ability to protect refugees and displaced families from the effects of extreme weather. If we want stability, we must invest where people are most at risk. To prevent further displacement, climate financing needs to reach the communities already living on the edge."
The UNHCR is urgently calling on climate negotiators at the upcoming COP30 in Brazil to address this largely ignored and rapidly growing population, demanding real action rather than empty promises.
