Press release: Nearly 800,000 people could have lost their homes to extreme weather during COP27

The head of the international disaster relief charity ShelterBox has warned how almost 800,000 people could have lost their home to extreme weather in time it’s taken for COP27 to play out.

The Cornwall-based charity, which is currently helping people on the frontline of climate disasters across the globe, specialises in emergency shelter aid.

Sanj Srikanthan believes COP27 will be remembered for being a “missed opportunity”.

“There’s been plenty of discussion, but what we need is action – right now,” he says.

“During the 13 days of the COP27 conference, almost 800,000 people could have lost their homes to extreme weather – around the population of a city like Leeds.

“The global displacement crisis is only going to get worse if we don’t see swift progress, yet the commitments made at the summit are vague at best.”

Recent IDMC figures show that 22.3 million people were internally displaced by extreme weather events in 2021 – more than 61,000 people every day.

Mr Srikanthan adds: “The lack of action at COP27 does not help families fleeing the worst drought in Somalia for 40 years, or communities in the Philippines whose homes are regularly ravaged by typhoons increasing in strength.

“Much more needs to be done to protect the world’s most climate vulnerable communities being forced from their homes by increasingly extreme weather. The only way forward is to work together and prioritise the gravest problem facing our global home before the damage caused is irreversible.”

ShelterBox regularly sees the impact that human-driven global warming is having on the lives of people it supports across the world. The charity is currently helping people affected by monsoon flooding in Pakistan that left around a third of the country underwater as well as people in the Horn of Africa where drought is forcing them from their homes in search of food and water.

ShelterBox is also supporting people caught between conflict and climate around the Lake Chad Basin and has responded in the Philippines more than 30 times – where climate vulnerable communities face storms that are increasing in strength.

ShelterBox is also working to support people in Yemen, Syria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Ukraine.  

For more information about ShelterBox visit shelterbox.org.   

ENDS  

For more information contact the press office at ShelterBox via [email protected].   

Notes to Editors  

• Images and b-roll available on request