The Number Of People Displaced By Disasters 4 Times Greater Then 1970

The number of displaced people is four times greater now in absolute terms than it was in 1970, according to the latest report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

Presenting a new report called 'Global Estimates 2014: People Displaced by Disasters' to the press, Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary-General Jan Egeland said today (17 Sep) that taking into account that the world's population has doubled in the last four decades, "a person today is twice as likely to be displaced by natural disasters as someone living in 1970s."

Egeland said that the number of people displaced by natural disasters is three times greater than those displaced by conflict.

On conflict displacement, he said that out of the accumulated 33 million people, eight million of them were displaced in 2013.

Asked about the location of the displaced, the senior Norwegian official said that more than 80 percent of all displacements were in Asia.

He said that "81 percent of all people displaced were in Asia and half of the 20 biggest displacement events were in two countries alone, China and the Philippines; Philippines being particularly vulnerable."

Egeland said that the Philippines accounts for seven million displaced caused by three major natural disasters.

He noted that 33 of the 36 of the countries that had armed conflict had also been hit by natural disasters, making it a "lethal mix" for disaster-prone countries.

He said that "it becomes more difficult to make peace in countries like Somalia because people are time and again devastated by natural disasters. And it's more difficult to make people resistant to natural disasters because there is conflict."

Adding that on top of the 7 million displaced by natural disasters in the Philippines, 327,000 people have been displaced by conflict. He also noted that half million people have been displaced by conflict in Nigeria and 117,000 by natural disasters.

Nowadays, he said, "many more people" are exposed to natural disasters because urbanization took place in a "bad way" in "disaster-prone areas." He said that slums in big cities have become "traps" for people exposed to natural disasters.

Egeland said that "natural disaster displacement has gone through the roof with population growth and increasing vulnerabilities, because more people are exposed to natural disasters. It will be accelerating now with more extreme weather being produced by climate change."

Asked for a message to world leaders ahead at the UN Climate Summit next week, he said that displacement will increase due to the "extreme weather and climate change." But stressed that "climate change can be stopped" and noted that developing countries are often hard hit by the effects of global warming.

He said "we should all remember that those who did nothing to cause climate change that are first and hardest hit now by natural disasters are the poor people in places that were no emissions. We, who caused climate change, are the least and last hit. It's the injustice of the century and it can be corrected."

Asked about displacement in South Sudan, UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson warned about the need to act before the crisis gets "deeper."

"If we don't act now to prevent this humanitarian crisis from go deeper and go deeper, by the end of this year, half of the population from South Sudan will be either refugees, internally displaced, starving or dead."

SHOTLIST:
17 SEPTEMBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY

Exterior of the United Nations Headquarters
Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson and Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary-General Jan Egeland walk to the podium, press briefing room
Journalists at the press briefing room
Press briefing room
Speakers walking away

SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council:
"Earlier this year we launched a report that found that 33 million people had been accumulated as conflict displaced in the world and eight of those million were displaced only in 2013, from conflict. Now, we have a report saying that, indeed, 22 million – three times the number of conflict internally displaced – have been displaced by natural disasters."

SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council:
"Four times more people in absolute numbers are displaced now compared to 1970s, four times more. If we then compared that to a doubled world population we see that a person today is twice as likely to be displaced by natural disasters as someone living in 1970s."

SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council:
"Eighty-one percent of all people displaced were in Asia and half of the 20 biggest displacement events were in two countries alone, China and the Philippines; Philippines being particularly vulnerable."

SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council:
"Thirty-three of the 36 countries that have armed conflict have natural disaster displacement as well. If there are relations between the two, yes I think so. I think it becomes more difficult to make peace in countries like Somalia because people are time and again devastated by natural disasters. And it's more difficult to make people resistant to natural disasters because there is conflict."

SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council:
"Natural disaster displacement has gone through the roof with population growth and increasing vulnerabilities, because more people are exposed to natural disasters. It will be accelerating now with more extreme weather being produced by climate change."

SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council:
"Climate change can be stopped. That's the main message of the summit. We should all remember that those who did nothing to cause climate change are first and hardest hit now by natural disasters are the poor people in places that were no emissions. We, who caused climate change, are the least and last hit. It's the injustice of the century and it can be corrected."

SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Eliasson Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations:
"If we don't act now to prevent this humanitarian crisis from go deeper and go deeper, by the end of this year, half of the population from South Sudan will be either refugees, internally displaced, starving or dead."

DURATION: 03:54