The consequences of climate change have already driven millions of people worldwide to flee their homes, according to figures released by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) ahead of the 30th annual U.N. Climate Change Conference set to start on Monday in Brazil.
"Over the past decade, weather-related disasters have caused some 250 million internal displacements – equivalent to over 67,000 displacements per day," the agency said in a report released on Monday.
The organization speaks of a vicious circle of conflicts and climate crises. Three-quarters of the people displaced by conflict live in countries that are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of climate change.
The UNHCR cites, among other things, floods in South Sudan and Brazil, record heat in Kenya and Pakistan and water shortages in Chad and Ethiopia.
"Climate change is compounding and multiplying the challenges faced by those who have already been displaced, as well as their hosts, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected settings," the report said.
Only a quarter of the funds made available for adaptation to the consequences of climate change reached countries threatened by conflict, which often took in many refugees themselves, according to the UNHCR.
The U.N.'s annual climate summit, known as COP30, is often used as a stage for poorer nations to call for more funding from prosperous countries to adapt to increasingly hostile climate conditions.
"If we want stability, we must invest where people are most at risk," said UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi. "To prevent further displacement, climate financing needs to reach the communities already living on the edge."
Grandi went on to call on participants at the climate conference to deliver: "This COP must deliver real action, not empty promises."
Around 50,000 participants from more than 190 countries are meeting in the Brazilian city of Belem, in the Amazon rainforest, for two weeks of talks starting on Monday.
They will discuss how to curb the climate crisis and its devastating impacts.
