New Delhi: The World Bank on Monday expressed concerns over rising sea levels, water scarcity, and reduced agriculture production. The World Bank has predicted that effects of the Climate change may force around 216 million people to migrate by 2050.
Juergen Voegele – The vice President of the World Bank’s sustainable development said that “The latest report includes three new regions which are Eastern Europe and Central Asia, North Africa and East Asia and the pacific – provide a ‘global estimate’ of the scale of potential migration,”
The US-based development lender in 2018 – released a report in which future effects of climate changes were mentioned. A report said that Climate change’s effect on migration in South Asia, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa and projected 143 million people could move in those regions by 2050.
“It’s important to note that this projection is not cast in stone. If countries start now to reduce greenhouse gases, close development gaps, restore vital ecosystems and help people adapt, internal climate migration could be reduced by up to 80 percent — to 44 million people by 2050,” Juergen Voegele said.
This trend could have significant implications for host countries, which are often unprepared to cope with these migration flows.
However, without decisive actions, there could be “hotspots” of climate migration that “will emerge as soon as within the next decade and intensify by 2050, as people leave places that can no longer sustain them and go to areas that offer opportunity,” he warned.
The trajectory of internal climate migration in the next half-century depends on our collective action on climate change and development in the next few years.