IOM chief urges action on growing climate migration

The head of the United Nations migration agency on Sunday urged the international community to mobilize human and financial resources to address growing climate migration.

Speaking on the sidelines of the UN climate conference COP27, António Vitorino said there are millions of people across the world who are already suffering the impact of natural disasters and climate change.

The Director General of the International Organization for Migration said he will ask leaders to invest in adaptation and building resistance in hard hit nations.

"We need at least the doubling of the current funding that is allocated to adaptation," Vitorino said on the first day of the event, hosted in the Egyptian resort town Sharm el-Sheikh.

Each year, natural disasters force an average of 21.5 million people from their homes around the world, according to the U.N..

Scientists predict migration will grow as the planet gets hotter.

Over the next 30 years, 143 million people are likely to be uprooted by rising seas, drought, searing temperatures and other climate catastrophes, according to the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report published this year.

"We are running short of time to act," Vitorino said.

He added that if leaders did not focus on solutions, then "we will have dramatic humanitarian crises in the future that can eat millions and millions of people in the world."

More than 40,000 participants have been registered for this year's talks, reflecting the sense of urgency as major weather events around the world impact many people and cost billions of dollars in repairs.