3.8 million internal displacements in India in 2020 due to weather-related calamities

New Delhi: A special report to the UN General Assembly notes that more than 3.8 million people were internally displaced in 2020, primarily due to weather-related disasters in India, while China recorded more than 5 million and the United States more than 1.7 million new displacements. This is in light of the fact that many countries around the world are experiencing extreme weather conditions, from drought to flash floods.

The report by Ian Fry, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights & climate change, released ahead of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York this month emphasises how the rights of people are being harmed or violated globally as a result of climate change.

Climate change is one of India's engagement priorities this year, and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is set to travel to New York to attend and speak at the annual General Assembly session, NIE reported.

The report takes aim at the major polluters' lack of commitment, claiming that, according to pre-COVID-19 predictions, members of the Group of 20 as a whole are not on track to meet their unconditional nationally set contribution commitments.

"Five members of the Group of 20 – Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Republic of Korea, and the United States – are projected to fall short and therefore require further action. By contrast, the world's 55 most vulnerable economies have lost over half their economic growth potential owing to the impacts of the climate crisis," it said.

China, the United States of America, India, the European Union, along with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Russian Federation, and Japan, collectively accounted for 67% of all fossil fuel-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2019. 78% of emissions over the previous ten years were accounted for by the members of the Group of 20.

The paper discusses recent extreme weather occurrences as well as the economic and non-economic costs of climate change. The catastrophic floods along the Brahmaputra river, which affected 5 lakh people, the numerous cyclones in Odisha, and the deaths brought on by the region's record-breaking heat waves this summer are all highlighted in the backdrop of India.

Fry's report talks about the need for special funding for loss and damage. "Despite a unanimous call from the Group of 77 and China at the twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Glasgow, United Kingdom, for a new funding mechanism for loss and damage, the proposal was rejected by influential developed countries."

"In the end, developing countries were pressured by wealthy nations into settling for a three-year dialogue on a funding arrangement for loss and damage, with no decision-making powers. Effectively, the major emitting countries have abandoned their duty to cooperate in line with the principles of international cooperation," the report further said.