One in 10 of the world's population could be displaced by climate crisis by 2050, report warns

Oxfam warned climate displacement 'is becoming a universal condition, experienced very differently depending on where a person sits in the global hierarchy of wealth'.

About 10% of the world’s population could be displaced by the climate crisis by 2050, a new report has warned.

Most climate migrants are expected to come from developing countries in the Global South, as floods, storms, droughts, and wildfires destroy homes, infrastructure, and livelihoods.

The new Disaster Divides report, by Oxfam, highlights how ordinary families are paying the price, while the world’s richest people drive the climate crisis.

It warns that, if the international community continues to fail to act, current trends indicate as many as one billion people could be displaced within 24 years.

The report said future climate migration “will not be limited” to people living in poverty. Large sections of the global middle-income population may also have to relocate as mortgages and property insurance become unaffordable or unavailable, or as jobs and economic opportunities move elsewhere.

Oxfam warned climate displacement “is becoming a universal condition, experienced very differently depending on where a person sits in the global hierarchy of wealth”.

The report said stark wealth inequalities had enabled billionaires to “quietly join the ranks of climate migrants” by buying islands and building fortified compounds and underground bunkers equipped with renewable energy, private water and food systems, and high-end security to insulate themselves from climate disasters.

“These strategies constitute a form of climate apartheid, as ultra-wealthy people use their wealth and power to escape the consequences of the crises they largely helped create,” Oxfam said.

Oxfam Ireland is urging governments to make rich polluters pay and end climate profiteering.

According to the report, a person in the richest 1% of the population has contributed 125 times more than the average person to extreme heat events — and nearly 400 times more than someone in the poorest 50%.

The charity said if 1,000 billionaires were a country, they would rank as the world’s 19th biggest polluter — behind Australia and ahead of South Africa — after producing 486 million tonnes of carbon dioxide last year.

It also warned one year of emissions by the richest 1% would cause 1.9 million excess heat-related deaths. The group has also been responsible for 20% of global warming since 1990.

The report said the richest 0.1% — eight million people — emit more than the world’s poorest 44%, or 3.5 billion people, combined. They also emit more than three times as much as the entire population of sub-Saharan Africa, which stands at 1.3 billion.

Oxfam Ireland chief executive Jim Clarken said the report should “shake world leaders into action”, adding ordinary people must also understand the gravity behind each number.

“Only one year of emissions by the richest 1% will cause 1.9 million excess heat-related deaths, predominantly affecting poorer families,” he said.

The brutal unfairness of this reality should be a rallying call to protest, urgently demand legislative change and fight for this planet and its people.

“Climate inequality is a mirror for wider societal gaps that Irish people also experience day to day. We see this in energy poverty and in a powerful few using data centres in this country ahead of the needs of its people. The fight for a liveable future is already on our doorstep,” Mr Clarken added.