The UNHCR Climate Resilience Fund has been launched to increase the protection of refugees against climate change

UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, today launched the UNHCR Climate Resilience Fund, aiming to increase protection for refugees and displaced communities most threatened by climate change.

As part of its work to protect and assist more than 114 million people forced to flee, UNHCR is already working to build people’s resilience and reduce their vulnerability to risks, including the impacts of climate change. For the first time, the Fund will focus exclusively on financing efforts to protect the most threatened displaced communities, and equip them to prepare for, cope with and recover from climate-related shocks.

Contributions to the Fund will expand the reach and impact of UNHCR’s climate action, allowing the agency and its partners to engage on climate-related projects in countries where it is already responding to major conflict-related situations of forced displacement, such as Bangladesh, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya and Mozambique.

The Fund will increase the availability of environmentally sustainable resources in displacement environments, providing more clean energy, for example to power the water, schools and health infrastructure used by refugees and their hosts. It will support environmental restoration and invest in resilience by building climate-resilient shelters, supporting climate-smart livelihoods and reducing the impact of the humanitarian response on the natural environment.

“The impacts of climate change are only becoming more devastating, worsening conflicts, destroying livelihoods and ultimately causing displacement,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. “Many of the countries that have been the most generous in accepting refugees are also the hardest hit by the climate crisis. The funding available to address the impacts of climate change is not reaching those forcibly displaced or the communities that host them.”

The Fund will prioritize projects whose impacts are felt locally, involve affected communities in their design and implementation, and are aligned with national climate strategies and development plans.

Climate risks are strongly correlated with conflict and poverty, which affect so many refugees and other forcibly displaced people. In 2022, more than 70 percent of refugees and asylum seekers fled from highly climate-vulnerable countries. About 60 percent of forcibly displaced and stateless people live in fragile and/or conflict-affected countries that are among the most vulnerable to climate change and the least prepared to adapt.

“By reducing exposure to climate-related hazards, securing access to sustainable resources and promoting inclusion, these projects will deliver tangible improvements in the living conditions, safety and well-being of refugees and their hosts,” Grandi added. “In the spirit of the Loss and Damage Fund activated at COP28, UNHCR is committed to advocating and significantly increasing financing to support climate action in vulnerable environments.”

UNHCR aims to raise $100 million by the end of 2025 for the Fund to support refugees, host communities and countries of origin most affected by the climate crisis, and to promote the inclusion of refugees in climate-related actions taken nationally and locally are taken. The Fund is expected to become a channel for partners to contribute to UNHCR’s climate programming.