Asian Geographic2017

HigHligHts

Nearly 15 million people worldwide

• approximately the population of
  Cambodia – were forced from their
  homes in 2015 by weather-related
  disasters, including violent storms,
  floods and landslides.
  As climate change intensifies,
  those numbers will rise. Not everyone
  will end up resettling elsewhere, but
  a large, undetermined number of
  displaced people are already becoming

Seeking Safer Ground

RESPONDING TO THE LOOMING CLIMATE MIGRANT CRISIS Text Bart W. Édes/Asian Development Bank

environmental migrants, defined by

the International Organization for

Migration as people who are obliged or

choose to leave home due to sudden or

progressive environmental changes that

adversely affect their lives.

Climate change is one factor in the

rising numbers of these displaced

people, but the associated crisis is

where many of these people live.

Research by Climate Central, an

independent organisation of scientists

and journalists, shows that up to

650 million people currently live in

vulnerable areas that will be submerged

or exposed to chronic flooding by the

year 2100.

The majority of people facing such

threats make their home in Asia and the

Pacific, the world’s most disaster-prone

region, which is acutely exposed to the

impacts of climate change.