Global health, climate change and migration: The need for recognition of "climate refugees"

Climate change is considered to be the greatest threat to public health in the coming decades, as ensuing environmental variations lead to population shifts [1]. In June 2022, the number of displaced people worldwide reached an all-time high at over 100 million [2]. Although they are temporary, weather-related disasters are increasingly becoming a major cause of displacements globally; according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), they have caused approximately 21 million displacements annually since 2008 [3,4]. The number of weather-related disasters almost tripled in the past 40 years, with their frequency and intensity exacerbated by climate change [2]. According to the “Groundswell – Preparing for Internal Climate Migration” World Bank report, without urgent national and global climate action, South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America could witness more than 140 million people move within their countries’ borders by 2050 [5]. Such figures are expected to surge in coming decades and the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) predicts that around 1.2 billion people could be displaced by 2050 due to natural disasters and climate change [6]. © 2023 THE AUTHOR(S)