In brief
UNHCR’s latest report highlights that almost 90 million forcibly displaced persons inhabit climate‑risk zones, with conflict, displacement and climate change increasingly overlapping. The agency, ahead of COP31, calls for expanded climate‑adaptation financing and stresses the urgency of helping communities adapt, especially as climate impacts hinder safe returns for refugees.
Nearly 90 million forcibly displaced people are now living in countries that are increasingly exposed to climate‑related hazards, UNHCR said on Friday ahead of the climate‑summit COP31. The agency’s report warning that the overlap of conflict, displacement and climate change is growing stresses a need for more climate‑adaptation funding for vulnerable communities.
The short‑term focus on the COP31 summit in Antalya, Turkey is punctuated by the longest‑running UNHCR data, which shows that three‑quarters of the world’s displaced population live in nations such as Afghanistan and Bangladesh that experience severe, recurrent climate‑related risks. The report, released just before the conference, argues that the risks these populations face are not merely environmental but are becoming a core part of yesterday’s and tomorrow’s social conflict.
UNHCR’s assistant high commissioner for operations, Anton Leis Garcia, emphasised the urgency of the situation:
Climate adaptation in fragile and displacement‑affected areas is a matter of survival, and we need climate financing to reach the communities where the needs are greatest.
He added that responding to climate risk in these highly vulnerable settings is not optional but a survival strategy for entire lives.
A vivid illustration comes from a Sudanese refugee who fled the fighting in al‑Fashir in June 2023 and now lives in the Farchana settlement in eastern Chad. “I sometimes go a week without finding safe water and must walk increasingly longer distances for alternative sources as nearby seasonal riverbeds dry up amid intensifying heat,” the woman said in interviews carried out by UNHCR staff. Her story highlights the very human cost of the projections that UNHCR cites in its report: an expanding number of refugee camps will face chronic shortages, forcing residents to spend days searching for water amid scorching conditions.
Return at Risk
The report also warns that climate change is making it harder for displaced people to return home sustainably. In the first half of 2026, more than two‑thirds of refugee returns were to countries highly exposed to climate hazards, meaning many returnees stand at risk of renewed displacement. In Syria, where almost 4 million displaced people have recently returned, attendees now face worsening water scarcity and erratic rainfall; flooding along the Euphrates River in May further damaged homes and displaced thousands of people again.
Sub‑Saharan Africa is also ahead of the curve. The report indicates that by 2050, one in three refugee settlements in the region could experience at least 100 days of dangerous heat each year, threatening health and livelihoods. Some settlements in Ethiopia—particularly Helaweyn—are already seeing dangerous heat spikes that endure through wet seasons and could destabilise already fragile water systems and food security for residents.
Climate‑adaptation funding therefore emerges as a fundamental pillar for post‑displacement resilience. UNHCR urges major donors and international partners to increase climate finance directed at emergency shelters, flood‑resistant infrastructure, renewable energy supplies, and sustainable agriculture practices in displaced communities. The agency’s report also stresses the need for “gender‑sensitive” funding streams that recognise the heightened vulnerability of women and children to shocks such as heat waves and water scarcity.
Industry observers and international NGOs echo UNHCR’s call. Many point out that, historically, climate mitigation funding has lagged behind immediate humanitarian aid. The latest UNHCR briefing urges integrating climate‑adaptation into standard relief protocols, so that every new temporary shelter also includes climate‑resilient materials, solar panels, and water‑storage systems.
On the policy front, the UN reframes the current climate negotiations by positioning displaced communities as a central constituency for climate policy success. Without major changes, millions of children born into camps, or now, into fully developed refugee cities, will grow up knowing only the terrors of unseasonal heat, flooding, and persistent drought. The call for climate‑adaptation funds also resonates with calls for broader climate‑justice laws that would hold large emitters accountable not only for greenhouse gases but for the cascade of displacement that follows extreme weather events.
While the UNHCR report brings data to the table, it also invites policymakers to test new models of partnership. Some proposals pin line‑by‑line solutions to specific case studies: for instance, aid organisations paired with local universities in Bangladesh to test early‑warning flood systems that double as emergency evacuation training. In Ethiopia, a pilot project using drought‑resistant crops in Helaweyn could demonstrate how climate‑smart agriculture can convert heat‑intolerant zones into productive communities capable of feeding residents during the hottest months.
Yet the core of the UNHCR briefing is a pragmatic plea: the climate crisis is now the most significant contributor to displacement risk. Without immediate, targeted climate adaptation funding, billions of displaced people will find themselves caught between two looming crises—sustaining life in a refugee camp that is no longer safe from the forces of nature, and returning to a homeland that has not rehabilitated its water, food and housing systems to withstand increasing extremes.
UNHCR’s analysis underscores that the urgency of this intersection will only intensify as COP31 concludes in the next weeks. The call to action is clear: phase in climate‑adaptation packages alongside traditional humanitarian aid, and do so with a focus on the specific needs and governance structures of refugee and displaced communities worldwide.
