Written question asked by Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour) on Monday, 17 October 2022, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 19 October 2022. It was answered by Vicky Ford (Conservative) on Tuesday, 25 October 2022 on behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Climate Change: Internally Displaced People and Migration

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has taken steps to create accurate (a) definitions of and (b) statistics on climate-related forced (i) displacement and (ii) migration.

Answer: Climate change is an increasingly significant factor in driving migration and displacement. However, decisions to migrate are rarely mono-causal; climate change interacts with and can exacerbate other drivers of migration. On that basis we do not use a single fixed definition of climate-related migration or displacement. The UK Government makes use of data from a range of sources to understand the relationship between climate change and migration. This has included commissioning a 'Rapid evidence assessment on the impacts of climate change on migration patterns', which has been made publicly available at https://www.gov.uk/research-for-development-outputs/rapid-evidence-assessment-on-the-impacts-of-climate-change-on-migration-patterns

Secondary information