In 2023, the figure reached 26.4 million worldwide as a result of floods, storms, wildfires and other disasters, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

Climate change is not solely responsible, but the frequency and intensity of extreme weather is increasing as global temperatures continue to rise. As a result we can expect that more and more people will face losing their homes and their livelihoods.

It is commonplace to see people boarding up their homes and literally battening down the hatches before a major hurricane is predicted to make landfall. For those facing extreme weather, this mentality is no longer confined to one-off events, but a regular mindset as the climate crisis continues to bite. Many communities around the world know that building resilience against intense storms, floods and heat waves is now essential to daily life.

“No country is immune to disaster displacement,” Alexandra Bilak, IDMC’s director, said in a recent press statement. “But we can see a difference in how displacement affects people in countries that prepare and plan for its impacts and those that don’t. Those that look at the data and make prevention, response and long-term development plans that consider displacement fare far better.”

This kind of planning is happening in countries on the front line of the climate crisis. Some small island nations, for example – many of them low-lying – are seeing their homes permanently washed into the Pacific Ocean.

Paradise lost

According to Fiji’s government, disaster events in the Pacific island state over the past 40 years have led to annual economic damages of around US$16 million, with 40,000 people impacted each year. This is due to increase to an average of US$85 million per year in losses, as a result of cyclones and earthquakes. These figures are high for a country with a population of under 1 million people.

Many of the people most impacted by climate disasters live in informal urban settlements. Their homes are extremely vulnerable to the regular cyclones that hit the island nation, especially as they are often located near riverbanks or around the coast.

The subtle art of scaling up climate adaptation

A recent Adaptation Fund project in Fiji was designed to build resilience against regular extreme weather events and “climate proof” housing for the foreseeable future. The project, implemented by UN-Habitat, looked at ways to protect thousands of homes when storm surges overwhelm local water and sanitation infrastructure. The settlements were located across four main urban areas on the island: Lautoka, Sigatoka, Nadi and Lami.

Low-cost, high-impact

Constructing cyclone-resilient buildings was an essential component of the work.

Moving new homes away from vulnerable hot spots, such as foreshores, floodplains and riverbanks, was a first step. As many settlements are self-built, training local people in new construction methods ensures future homes can be built with extreme weather in mind. An innovative element from the project was so-called ‘stilted safe rooms’ – low-cost and simple raised structures intended to provide refuge during periods of intense flooding.

Flood control is a key component of climate-proofing infrastructure. In Fiji, priorities included building upgraded site drainage to reduce runoff; upgrading water sources and storage; and improving access ways, to ensure people can respond when cyclones put pressure on local infrastructure.

School’s out

In Haiti, a very poor and conflict-torn country beset with repeated natural disasters, climate-proofing infrastructure is still at an early stage. The country’s education sector, for example, has been repeatedly hit by extreme weather, including in 2016 when Hurricane Matthew damaged a quarter of its schools. Rebuilding after such frequent turmoil now requires new ways of thinking.

With the help of around US$10 million of funding from the Adaptation Fund, UNESCO is currently supporting the restoration of 620 schools across the country. Their work has included raising awareness of disaster risk reduction, improving knowledge of safety levels, and retrofitting existing buildings.

As climate disasters grow, early warning systems become essential

Panaroty Ferdinand Prophete, UNESCO’s national coordinator, told Climate Home that “nearly 200 technicians, students and experts received training on new construction techniques, an early warning system and the management of temporary shelters.” This training included working directly with the Ministry of Education to develop new construction standards for schools.

Over 150,000 students have so far benefited from the project, a success Prophete attributes to “very good synergy” between the different stakeholders. “This makes it easy to put in place a community emergency plan as well as the execution of the national action plan for resilient school infrastructure,” he added.

Best defence

Experts agree that we need to change the way we live in response to climate disasters. Moving settlements away from major water sources is, if possible, a simple solution. More projects supported by the Adaptation Fund – from Indonesia to Antigua and Barbuda – are focusing on blocking, redirecting or draining excess water as it comes in, to keep homes intact and habitable. These responses will remain some of our best defence against more unpredictable and extreme weather.

“A key sector for the Adaptation Fund is averting and reducing loss and damage through disaster risk reduction and early warning systems, which account for about 16% of the Fund’s current portfolio. Many additional multi-sector projects also include elements that are building resilience to disasters,” said Mikko Ollikainen, head of the Adaptation Fund.

“From climate-proofing homes and community centres to making informal settlements resilient to floods, it’s a vital aspect of the Fund’s work. Many of the projects are replicable and scalable so we hope they will also serve as models to create a larger positive impact on additional vulnerable communities beyond those served by the projects,” he added.

There is only so much adaptation can achieve if the flood waters get too high, or if cyclones increase in intensity and destructive force. But there are many cost-effective solutions to offer people a better chance of keeping their homes intact when extreme weather hits.

These investments can’t come soon enough for communities living in climate hot-spots and can serve to tackle long standing poverty issues at the same time. Fast-tracking these solutions will become ever more important if we want to reduce the millions of newly displaced people each year.

Sponsored by the Adaptation Fund. See our supporters page for what this means.

Adam Wentworth is a freelance writer based in Brighton, UK.

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Vanuatu was hardest hit by Cyclone Pam, but Tuvalu also suffered sever flooding (Pic: UNICEF)

By Megan Darby

Tuvalu should still be considered one of the world’s “least developed countries” despite rising wealth, its UN ambassador is arguing in the wake of Cyclone Pam.

Aunese Makoi Simati wrote to the UN’s economic and social council (Ecosoc), asking for the low-lying Pacific island state’s vulnerability to climate disaster to be taken into account.

Even though Tuvalu was not at the centre of the category five storm, many of its outer islands suffered severe flooding, affecting some 45% of the population.

Homes and crops were washed away, raising fears of food shortages.

“This is the very kind of vulnerability that Tuvalu have consistently requested… Ecosoc members to take into serious consideration when they assess Tuvalu’s graduation from the list of the least developed countries (LDCs),” Simati wrote.

“Even with the eye of the storm centred in Vanuatu, it takes only the periphery of Cyclone Pam to destroy developments which have taken many years to establish in Tuvalu; thus further reaffirming our high vulnerabilities as a small low lying atoll country, to natural disaster and the inadvertent forces of nature.”

Countries are classed as “least developed” if they are disadvantaged in three areas: wealth, “human assets” (literacy and healthcare rates), and economic vulnerability to shocks.

The classification brings preferential treatment in areas like development assistance and trade agreements.

Tuvalu is arguing that its vulnerability outweighs any other development gains.

The Maldives and Samoa, two island states similarly under threat from rising sea levels, have already graduated, while Vanuatu is in transition.

Simati restated his case following an emergency meeting of the alliance of small island states (AOSIS) to discuss Vanuatu’s recovery from Cyclone Pan.

Island leaders met in New York to express solidarity with Vanuatu and call on the international community to send aid.

Odo Tevi, Vanuatu’s UN ambassador, reported that a third of the 250,000 population were in need of shelter and others lacked food and clean water. Food sources had been damaged across the archipelago.

“Disasters drive home the point, in a very real way, that small island developing states (SIDS) are affected by disasters very differently than other countries,” said Ahmed Sareer, Maldives ambassador to the UN and chair of AOSIS.

“Disasters in SIDS are not localised to the point where it strikes, our whole country is affected.

“Developmental gains achieved over many years, through tremendous effort and investment, are lost within minutes. Livelihoods destroyed. Lives host.

“And this is made more alarming by reports that indicate that up to 70% of disasters may now be climate-related, and that human induced climate change has resulted in an increase in intensity and frequency of disasters.”

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Increases in displaced persons, desertification and even longer plant blooming periods endanger respiratory health. (Source: UN)

A group of international researchers have claimed that climate change is responsible for the escalation of a number of lung diseases and respiratory conditions.

The researchers said that increased air pollution, in urban and rural locations, were just one reason why changing weather patterns were affecting human health.

The American Thoracic Society, which has members across the globe issued a position paper to inform its members on its stance with regard to climate change.

The panel of scientists from Europe, Asia, India, Middle East and Africa made a number of recommendations based on their own specialities.

Kent Pinkerton, Co-author of the study and air quality specialist, listed the risks to health from his field of study.

“These include more smoke and particulate matter from more wildfires, which are known to increase in frequency as the climate warms, and the presence of airborne particles from dust storms caused by desertification,” said Pinkerton.

Climate change is also increasing the range of certain airborne diseases that were previously restricted by temperature.

The paper gives the example of a mould spore previously limited to Central America that is now being found as far north as Canada. The spores can increase allergies and asthma. Similarly, infectious disease from the Mediterranean, are now being found in Scandinavia.

Respiratory problems linked to increased wildfires, pollen from extended plant blooms and heightened dust levels from desertification and soil degradation will also increase.

The group also identified more indirect health risks such as increases in infectious disease among displaced populations.

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2011 was one of the costliest years on record in terms of natural catastrophe losses, according to new research.

Source: Munich RE

Devastating earthquakes and a large number of weather-related catastrophes cost $380 billion worldwide in economic losses last year.

This was nearly two-thirds higher than 2005, which held the previous record at £220 billion.

According to research by insurers Munich RE, while two thirds of economic losses came from geophysical events, principally large earthquakes, 90% of the recorded natural catastrophes were weather related.

With storms battering shores from the USA to Australia to Asia, flash floods in Europe and with snow storms intertwined with heatwaves, 2011 saw an extraordinary level of extreme weather events.

Torsten Jeworrek, from Munich RE, believes the volume of events last year was unprecedented.

“A sequence of severe natural catastrophes like last year’s is a very rare occurrence. We had to contend with events with return periods of once every 1,000 years or even higher at the locations concerned,” he said.

Last year also saw a stark warning from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who reported increased evidence of the link between climate change and weather events, predicting that these types of events were set to become more frequent.

Costs from these disasters were not only financial either. Munich RE say around 27,000 people fell victim to natural disasters in 2011, not including the thousands who died as a result of famines following the drought in the Horn of Africa.

RTCC VIDEO:  Climate risk expert Professor Richard Klein from the Stockholm Environment Institute gives us his thoughts on what an acceptable level of risk is.

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