LatinAmerica & Caribbean Expecting Boom in Climate Migration

Rashaed Esson

Staff Writer

November 25, 2023 – Climate migration in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region is set to increase by 2050, estimated to reach 216.1 million worldwide.

This development comes with the worsening climate change effects such as extreme temperatures and extreme weather conditions.

The 2050 prediction came from the World Bank (2021), featured in Start Network’s LAC Climate Week regional brief document.

It highlighted the current conditions in the LAC region that are contributing factors to the coming increase in climate migration.

It refers to excessive rainfall, severe floods, food insecurity, insufficient incomes and falling local food production, in addition to lack of unemployment.

Additionally, Latin America alone, it says, could potentially see 17.1 million internal climate migrants.

In continuation, the brief points out that the most affected within the LAC population include marginalized groups such as men, women, girls, boys, disabled people and indigenous peoples.

This development for the region is a wake-up call for swift moves among policy and decision makers, the brief stressed.

In the Global south, some countries are developing climate-induced relocation policies. However, the policies, according to the document, often exclude marginalized groups and are also not widespread.