2015•12•10     Paris     SciDevNet

More than 70 per cent of households in Kiribati and Tuvalu and 35 per cent in Nauru would migrate if the effects of climate change worsen, such as floods, sea level rise or droughts. But only roughly a quarter of households in those countries have the financial resources to migrate, which could leave many “trapped” in increasingly difficult environmental climates, according to the first nationally representative household survey conducted on climate change and migration in the Pacific.

“...if nothing is done urgently and if more extreme weather is coming, we’ll have no choice but to move”- Tuvalu prime minister Enele Sopoaga.

About 6,852 people representing 852 households spread out over the three island states were interviewed in the survey carried out by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the UN University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS).

Read the article online here.