Climate disasters put plight of displaced in COP27 focus | World News,The Indian Express

Given the growing need, developing countries at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt this month are demanding that wealthy nations offer more in the way of help.

With Somalia in the grips of its worst drought in 40 years, “people became weak because of hunger, so we had to flee for our lives,” 82-year-old Hassan said. But he couldn’t escape tragedy.

“My wife died of hunger here, and I became helpless,” he said, speaking in a video interview distributed by the U.N. refugee agency.

There are some 22 million people like Hassan displaced every year in climate-fueled disasters, according to the U.N. International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Some had lived along coastlines or on islands that are losing land to rising seas. Others in the Arctic fled crumbling cliffs as permafrost thaws.

Uprooted, they become more vulnerable to violence, hunger and disease, experts say. And with climate change fueling increasingly extreme weather worldwide, the number displaced is expected to grow to about 143 million by mid-century.

https://indianexpress.com/article/world/cop27-climate-disasters-8265962/

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