Care, UN and Columbia University: Climate change forces new migration response

Climate change will force millions of people to leave their homes to flee rising seas and drought over the coming decades, requiring a new plan for mass migration, said a report published on Wednesday. Funds were needed to help migrants escape natural disasters which will worsen, threatening political stability, said the report published by the U.N. University, CARE International and Columbia University.

"Environmentally induced migration and displacement has the potential to become an unprecedented phenomenon -- both in terms of scale and scope," the study said. "In coming decades, climate change will motivate or force millions of people to leave their homes in search of viable livelihoods and safety."

The report said that the science of climate change was too new to forecast exact projected numbers of migrants, but it cited an International Organisation for Migration estimate of 200 million environmentally induced migrants by 2050.

Wednesday's study highlighted especially vulnerable regions of the world including: island states such as Tuvalu and the Maldives, dry areas such as Africa's Sahel and in Mexico, and delta regions in Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Egypt. "In the densely populated Ganges, Mekong, and Nile River deltas, a sea level rise of 1 metre could affect 23.5 million people and reduce the land currently under intensive agriculture by at least 1.5 million hectares," it said.

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