International Organization for Migration: “40 million people will migrate by 2050 due to climate change in South Asia”

“South Asia, with its large population and limited resources, is particularly vulnerable… predicting risks with AI.”

(Jakarta = Yonhap News) Reporter Son Hyun-gyu = The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is concerned that 40 million people in South Asia may be forced to migrate by 2050 due to climate change.

According to AFP on the 17th (local time), IOM Secretary-General Amy Pope, who is visiting India, said in an interview the day before that climate change is threatening livelihoods and causing forced migration across South Asia.

He diagnosed that sea level rise and drought, including the massive flood in Nepal that occurred last August, are threatening homes and farmland.

He also expressed concern that, assuming the worst-case scenario, up to 40.5 million people in South Asia may be forced to migrate by 2050.

“If you can’t produce food and feed your livestock, the likelihood of migration increases,” Pope said. “The first response people have in those situations is migration.”

IOM analyzed that South Asian countries, including India, are particularly vulnerable to climate change due to their large populations and limited resources.

“There is a lack of urgency globally about the risks vulnerable communities face,” Pope said, warning that there was still a lack of funding to help them prepare for climate change.

However, IOM emphasized that better data and artificial intelligence (AI) could help South Asian countries identify risks before disasters occur.

“Thanks to advances in AI forecasting technology, we can now better predict areas at high risk of forced displacement,” Pope said, adding that combining weather forecasts with information on people’s livelihoods can help identify where help is needed.

On August 26, more than 1,400 people died and about 6,000 went missing in Nepal and China's Tibet Autonomous Region, which share a border, due to a major flood that occurred in the upper reaches of the Himalayan mountain region.

It has been raised that this major flood may have been caused by a massive collapse of glaciers and rocks due to climate change in the Himalayas caused by global warming.