Resource information
In a world in which poverty is increasingly concentrated in vulnerable or fragile states, and fragility is increasingly driven by climate change, climate-induced displacement has become one of the most visible manifestations of the relationship between ecological and societal breakdown. Newest figures from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre reveal that over 70% of the 33 million newly displaced people (2019) had climate-related triggers. Poor and marginalised people are being driven from their homes with greater frequency and in greater numbers as they are struck by storms, heat waves, floods, rising sea levels and other threats caused and exacer-bated by climate change. The impacts of recent climate disasters in developing countries that are also enduring COVID-19, such as Vanuatu, Fiji, Bangladesh, the Philippines and India, have revealed the harsh reality that people experience. Not only did these events cause displacement, they also brought harm to people already on the move, like refugees in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, or migrant workers in India.This injustice is further compounded for women and girls, particularly in developing countries. Systemic gender inequal-ities in leadership and decision-making limits their access to resources and inhibits their ability to withstand the impacts of climate change, to access basic services and to recover from climate-related disasters.The impact of the climate crisis on people’s lives, experiences and material conditions differ based on their gender and sexuality. Our activities in response can increase and reinforce, or reduce, existing inequalities. Integrating gender into every stage of a response is therefore a core part of CARE’s work.This report outlines the causes and consequences of climate-induced displacement, and how the triple injustice of climate change, poverty and gender inequality must be met by transformative action: to support more gender-equal and resilient communities in sustainable environments. In this report, CARE draws on key scientific findings as well as its own experience and, most importantly, the experiences of the people CARE seeks to support in managing compound risks: women and girls in vulnerable situations. Climate change can lead to land degradation, even with the implementation of measures intended to avoid, reduce, or reverse the degradation. In some situations, exceeding the limits of adaptation can trigger escalating losses or result in undesirable transformational changes, such as forced migration, conflicts, or poverty.
