Assumptions that up to a billion people will permanently migrate from poor to rich countries to escape the effects of climate change are “alarmist” and false, a meeting of population and climate experts in London heard yesterday. Tacoli warned the meeting against frequently cited estimates of the number of people who will migrate because of climate change, which range from 200 million to 1 billion people by 2050. In a paper Tacoli presented to the meeting, to be published later this year in the journal Environment and Urbanization, she says it is “surprising” that these figures have “become an unquestioned orthodoxy, especially amongst natural scientists concerned with climate change”.
