UNHCR warns nearly 90 million displaced face severe climate risks

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday that nearly 90 million forcibly displaced people, about three in four worldwide, are living in countries highly exposed to droughts, floods and extreme heat. The agency issued the warning ahead of the COP31 climate summit in Turkey next week and called for displaced populations to be included in national climate plans and finance.

Anton Leis Garcia, UNHCR assistant high commissioner for operations, said refugees face a "double injustice": forced to flee conflicts they did not cause, they are now on the frontlines of a climate crisis they contributed least to. The agency said climate change is also making it harder to find lasting solutions for people who have fled.

More than two thirds of refugees who returned home in the first half of this year went back to countries highly vulnerable to climate hazards, UNHCR said. In Syria, where nearly four million displaced people have recently returned, declining groundwater and climate shocks are threatening recovery. Flooding along the Euphrates River last May damaged homes and displaced thousands again, the agency said.

Extreme heat is a growing threat. UNHCR said that by 2050 one in three refugee settlements across sub-Saharan Africa could face 100 or more days of dangerous heat each year.

Weather-related disasters are also driving displacement inside countries, causing more than 255 million internal displacements worldwide over the past decade, or about 70,000 a day, according to the agency. It said this year's exceptionally strong El Nino was expected to cause more displacement. In East Africa, forecasts indicate that severe flooding linked to the phenomenon could displace up to three million people across Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda by the end of 2026.

UNHCR said only 10 percent of global climate finance goes to fragile and conflict-affected countries hosting large populations of displaced people exposed to climate hazards. At COP31, it will ask governments and climate finance institutions to include refugees and other displaced people in national climate plans and financing mechanisms.

"For millions, climate change is not a distant threat. It is destroying shelters, undermining livelihoods and putting their hopes of rebuilding their lives at risk," Leis Garcia said. He also said: "We cannot allow those who have already lost so much to be left behind in global climate action."