Climate change creates new refugees: 26 million people displaced annually

Climate change has established itself as one of the main drivers of human displacement in the 21st century. Each year, around 26 million people are forced to leave their homes due to extreme weather events directly linked to global warming: devastating floods, increasingly intense tropical cyclones, prolonged droughts and deadly heatwaves.

Unlike war refugees, climate displaced people are not recognised by any specific international legal framework. The 1951 Geneva Convention does not protect them, leaving them in a legal void that hampers their protection and reintegration.

South Asia is the worst-affected region. Bangladesh, Pakistan and India account for some of the most severe mass displacement episodes. Increasingly intense monsoon floods and rising sea levels threaten the coastal areas and river deltas where hundreds of millions of people live.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the progressive desertification of the Sahel and massive floods in East Africa combine their effects with structural poverty and institutional weakness, creating situations of extreme vulnerability.

Scientific projections indicate that without a drastic reduction in global emissions, the number of climate displaced people could reach 216 million by 2050, concentrated in six regions: sub-Saharan Africa, South and East Asia, North Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

The international community is beginning to recognise the urgency of the problem. Several climate summits have for the first time included displacement on their agendas, but concrete commitments to protect affected people remain insufficient.