World Bank Group has projected that over 140 million people would move within the borders of the three densely populated regions of the world by 2050.
In its report, Groundswell- Preparing for Internal Climate Migration, the global financial institution disclosed that the worsening impacts of climate change in three regions would create a looming human crisis and threaten the development process.
The President, Mr. Jim Kim, explained that with concerted action, which includes global efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and robust development planning at the country level, the worst-case scenario of over 140 million could be dramatically reduced, by as much as 80 percent, or more than 100 million people.
The report is the first and most comprehensive study of its kind to focus on the nexus between slow-onset climate change impacts, internal migration patterns and, development in three developing regions of the world: Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America.
He said, “It finds that unless urgent climate and development action is taken globally and nationally, these three regions together could be dealing with tens of millions of internal climate migrants by 2050. These are people forced to move from increasingly non-viable areas of their countries due to growing problems like water scarcity, crop failure, sea-level rise and storm surges.”