UNHCR: Nearly 90 Million Displaced People Live in Countries Highly Exposed to Climate Hazards

The U.N. refugee agency warned ahead of this month’s COP31 climate summit that nearly 90 million forcibly displaced people — about three-quarters of the global total — are living in countries highly exposed to climate hazards such as drought, floods and extreme heat.

In a briefing released before the Nov. 9-20 talks in Antalya, Türkiye, and independently reported by Reuters and other outlets on Thursday, UNHCR said the overlap between displacement and climate risk is deepening already severe humanitarian crises. The agency used the briefing to press negotiators and climate-finance institutions to direct more adaptation funding to fragile states and to include refugees and other displaced people in national climate plans.

“Refugees face a double injustice. Forced to flee conflicts they did not cause, they are now on the frontlines of a climate crisis they have contributed least to,” Antón Leis García, UNHCR assistant high commissioner for operations, said in the briefing.

UNHCR said climate change is also making durable solutions harder to achieve. More than two in three refugees who returned home in the first half of 2026 went back to countries vulnerable to climate hazards, it said, raising the risk that returnees face new shocks even after leaving exile.

The agency also pointed to worsening conditions in displacement settings. By 2050, one in three refugee settlements across sub-Saharan Africa could face at least 100 days of dangerous heat each year, according to the briefing. More than half of the locations assessed could see at least 50 additional days of dangerous heat annually.

In East Africa, UNHCR warned that severe flooding linked to a strong El Niño weather pattern could displace up to 3 million people across Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda by the end of 2026. Separately, it said weather-related disasters have triggered more than 255 million internal displacements over the past decade.

The briefing also highlighted risks for people without nationality. UNHCR said nearly 90% of the world’s roughly 4.7 million reported stateless people live in countries facing high-to-extreme climate hazards.

The nearly 90 million figure is not entirely new. It comes from UNHCR’s November 2024 report, “No Escape — On the frontlines of climate change, conflict and forced displacement,” and was restated in this week’s briefing alongside updated 2026 operational details, including the returnee data and East Africa flood-risk estimate.

UNHCR’s count refers to forcibly displaced people living in countries with high-to-extreme exposure to climate hazards. It does not mean climate change directly caused each person’s displacement. Rather, the agency is highlighting how conflict, displacement and climate exposure increasingly overlap in many of the same places.

That overlap is central to UNHCR’s argument before COP31. The agency said only around 10% of global climate finance currently reaches fragile and conflict-affected countries, even though many host large displaced populations and face some of the most severe climate risks.

“Climate adaptation in fragile and displacement-affected areas is a matter of survival,” Leis said. “We need climate financing to reach the communities where the needs are greatest.”