Climate Change And Migration: Evidence From The Middle East And North Africa (world Bank Studies)
by George Joseph /
2014 / English / EPUB
13.9 MB Download
Climate change and migration are major concerns in the MENA region,
yet the empirical evidence on the impact of climate change and
extreme weather events on migration remains limited. Information is
broadly lacking on how households in vulnerable areas perceive
changes in the climate, how they are affected by extreme weather
events, whether they benefit from community and government programs
to help them cope with and adapt to a changing climate, and how
these conditions influence the decision of household members to
migrate, either temporarily or permanently. This introductory
chapter summarizes briefly the main results of the study which
relied on existing data as well as focus groups and new household
surveys collected in 2011 in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Syria, and
Yemen. The results suggest that households do perceive important
changes in the climate, and that many households are being affected
by extreme weather events resulting in losses in income, crops, and
livestock. The coping and adaptation strategies used by households
to deal with weather shocks are diverse, but also limited, with
most households not able to recover from the negative impact of
weather shocks. The ability of community level responses and
government programs to support households is also very limited.
Finally, while climate change is not today the main driver of
migration flows, it does appear to contribute substantially to
these flows, so that worsening climatic conditions are likely to
exacerbate future migration flows.
Climate change and migration are major concerns in the MENA region,
yet the empirical evidence on the impact of climate change and
extreme weather events on migration remains limited. Information is
broadly lacking on how households in vulnerable areas perceive
changes in the climate, how they are affected by extreme weather
events, whether they benefit from community and government programs
to help them cope with and adapt to a changing climate, and how
these conditions influence the decision of household members to
migrate, either temporarily or permanently. This introductory
chapter summarizes briefly the main results of the study which
relied on existing data as well as focus groups and new household
surveys collected in 2011 in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Syria, and
Yemen. The results suggest that households do perceive important
changes in the climate, and that many households are being affected
by extreme weather events resulting in losses in income, crops, and
livestock. The coping and adaptation strategies used by households
to deal with weather shocks are diverse, but also limited, with
most households not able to recover from the negative impact of
weather shocks. The ability of community level responses and
government programs to support households is also very limited.
Finally, while climate change is not today the main driver of
migration flows, it does appear to contribute substantially to
these flows, so that worsening climatic conditions are likely to
exacerbate future migration flows.