Climate migration in Bangladesh may increase 7-fold by 2050: ActionAid

Bangladesh could see a seven-fold increase of climate migration, forcing 3 million people to migrate from their homes due to climate disasters by 2050.

This number is more than double the South Asia average, according to new research from ActionAid International and Climate Action Network South Asia.

Across South Asia, 63 million people will be forced to migrate from their homes due to climate disasters by 2050, if the global community fails to limit warming to well below 2°C, as per the Paris agreement goal, according to a press release from ActionAid.

New analysis estimates that climate migration will treble in South Asia by slow onset events such as sea level rise, water stress, loss of biodiversity and droughts. The region is also badly affected by extreme weather events like floods and cyclones. However, these were not included in this study.

The research was undertaken by Bryan Jones at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, Baruch College, New York, one of the authors of the inaugural Groundswell Report on internal climate migration in 2018.

The new research released on December 18, the International Migrants Day, has broadened the analysis to incorporate new drivers of climate migration, which includes loss of biodiversity and drought, alongside impacts on the water and agriculture sectors that were included in Groundswell report, and updated projections of sea-level rise.