Approximately 20 million people are forced to leave their homes due to extreme weather events each year (UNCHR, n.d.b.). The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) reported 30.7 million people were displaced in 2020 due to climate disasters (the highest it has been in the past 10 years), see infographic below for more details on types of weather events that caused displacement (2021). The IDMC also noted that "many people stayed in their exposed homes despite early warnings because of fear of infection" from Covid-19 (2021, p. 15). These situations have short and long-term impacts across society in the realms of politics, healthcare, and the economy to name a few.
Image: IDMC. (2021). New Displacements in 2020: Breakdown for Conflict and Disasters.
Key Terms
Considered by some to be a politically neutral term (versus refugees) this term may also not entirely describe people who have been forced to flee their homes due to climate change as the term 'migrants' can imply that movement is voluntary (Dickson, Webber, Takaro, 2014, p. 10).
"The term “climate refugees” is often used in relation to forced migration in the context of climate and environmental change, this is not a legally valid term as the 1951 Refugee Convention does not recognize environmental factors as criteria to define a refugee." (Migration Data Portal, 2021). Similarly, this term "is not endorsed by UNHCR, and it is more accurate to refer to “persons displaced in the context of disasters and climate change.” (UNHCR, n.d.b.).
“Persons who are displaced within their country of habitual residence or who have crossed an international border and for whom environmental degradation, deterioration or destruction is a major cause of their displacement, although not necessarily the sole one. This term is used as a less controversial alternative to environmental refugee or climate refugee [in the case of those displaced across an international border] that have no legal basis or raison d’être in international law, to refer to a category of environmental migrants whose movement is of a clearly forced nature” (IOM, 2011: 34 in IOM, 2014:13)
People who "have not crossed a border to find safety. Unlike refugees, they are on the run at home... [they] stay within their own country and remain under the protection of its government, even if that government is the reason for their displacement. They often move to areas where it is difficult for us to deliver humanitarian assistance and as a result, these people are among the most vulnerable in the world" (UNHCR, n.d.a.)
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