Skip to main content

Why the climate crisis is a humanitarian emergency

Countries
World
+ 11 more
Sources
OCHA
Publication date
Origin
View original

Without drastic efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the humanitarian impacts of climate change will be far worse in the decades to come.

Climate change is not a distant vision of a troubled future. It is a reality of today.

Human-induced global warming has spurred a near doubling of natural disastersin the past 20 years. At least 7,348 major disasters occurred between 2000 and 2019, claiming 1.23 million lives and affecting 4.2 billion people worldwide.

In 2019, 34 million people globally were acutely food insecure due to climate extremes; weather-related hazards triggered some 24.9 million displacements in 140 countries.

The unfolding climate emergency is adding an additional layer of stress to humanitarian organizations that are already stretched thinner than ever before.

Read more on Exposure

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.