Climate change to displace millions in South Asia: UN

NEW DELHI, Oct 16: Climate change is threatening livelihoods and forcing people from their homes across South Asia, including vulnerable communities in Bangladesh, but technology, government action and planned migration could help limit the damage, the UN migration chief has told AFP.

Rising sea levels, floods and droughts threaten homes and farmland across the region, Amy Pope, Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said during a visit to New Delhi.

Bangladesh faces similar risks from rising sea levels, river erosion, floods and cyclones, which threaten livelihoods and force people to leave their homes, particularly in coastal and riverine areas.

In a worst-case scenario, up to 40.5 million people in South Asia could be forced to move by 2050, according to the IOM.

“When they can't produce food, when they can't feed their livestock, it increases the likelihood of displacement,” Pope said. “The first adaptation is often for people to move.”

She said climate change was also accelerating urbanisation in India as people sought shelter from extreme heat. Similar pressures on livelihoods can drive migration from rural areas to cities, adding to the challenges of managing rapid urban growth. 

Pope warned that vulnerable communities across South Asia were not receiving sufficient support to prepare for climate-related risks.

“There's a lack of urgency globally about the risks that vulnerable communities are facing,” she said, adding that funding for climate adaptation remained inadequate.

“The cost of a humanitarian disaster is in the billions. The cost of investing in some of the resilience measures can be far less,” she said.

Better data and artificial intelligence could help governments identify communities at risk before disasters strike. By combining weather forecasts with information about local livelihoods, authorities could determine where assistance was most urgently needed.

“If you know a community is at risk, we don't need to wait until they're displaced to respond,” Pope said.

Possible measures include improving farming practices, providing training for alternative employment and relocating communities repeatedly affected by floods or droughts.

However, securing funding for such programmes remains a major obstacle, she said, as governments often struggle to navigate the systems available to finance climate adaptation.

Pope said India's investments in early-warning systems, disaster response and technology offered grounds for optimism, while stressing that no government could address the scale of the challenge alone.

She also highlighted international migration as a way to help people earn a living while meeting labour shortages abroad. South Asia's established migration routes could provide a basis for expanding opportunities, provided workers have access to safe and legal employment.

Without such safeguards, migrants risk exploitation by traffickers and smugglers, including through fraudulent overseas job offers.

Pope said artificial intelligence could threaten some jobs, particularly those involving routine analysis of documents and reports, but workers could benefit if training kept pace with changing labour-market demands.

“If we can marry that capacity with the labour mobility, so that the workers are being skilled for those jobs as they're emerging, they will be ahead,” she said.�"AFP