Report: No 'mass migration' with climate

LONDON, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- A report by a British think tank says global climate change will not trigger mass migrations from one part of the world to another as some have feared.

The study by the International Institute for Environment and Development said people tended to stay in their own country, despite claims by some that climate change could have 50 million "environmental migrants" on the move, the BBC reported Friday.

Recent studies in Bolivia, Senegal and Tanzania found no evidence that environmental degradation would result in large flows of international migrants, the IIED report said.

Most displaced people wanted to stay as near to their homes as possible and most stayed within their own borders, study lead author Cecilia Tacoli said.

"Environmental change undoubtedly increases the number of people mobile," she said. "But catastrophe like droughts and floods tend to overlap with social and structural upheaval, like the closure of other sources of local employment that might have protected people against total dependence on the land.

"Of course we need to act on climate change, and rich nations have a moral obligation to help poor people affected by it," Tacoli said. "But it's often easier and quicker to address the socio-economic factors."