Climate change could force over 200 million people to leave their homes

Climate change could force more than 200 million people from their homes over the next three decades and create migration zones unless they are taken urgent measures to reduce global emissions and close a development gap, a World Bank report concluded.

The second part of the report entitled Groundswell published on Monday examines how the impact of slow climate change, as Water scarcity, declining crop productivity and rising sea levels could lead millions of people to what the report describes as “climate migrants”. by 2050 according to three different scenarios with varying degrees of climate action and development.

In the most pessimistic scenario, with high emissions and uneven development, the report predicts that up to 216 million people will migrate within their own country in six regions analyzed: Latin America; North Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa; Eastern Europe and Central Asia; South Asia; and East Asia and the Pacific.

In the less serious scenario, with a low level of emissions and inclusive and sustainable development, the number of migrants could be up to 80% less but even that would mean the migration of about 44 million people.

The report did not analyze the impacts on short term climate change, such as the effects of extreme weather events

The results “They reaffirm the capacity of the climate to induce migration within countries”said Viviane Wei Chen Clement, senior climate change specialist at the World Bank and one of the report’s authors.

In the worst case Sub-Saharan Africa —The most vulnerable region due to desertification, fragile coasts and the population’s dependence on agriculture –it would be the one who will register the most movement, with up to 86 million climate migrants changing places within national borders.

The report does not present a study on the climate migration beyond its own national borders.

(With AP information)

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