Devastating storms and flooding forced people from their homes three times more than violent conflicts did in 2020, when displacements around the world reached its highest figure in a decade.

In a year marked with persistent violence in places such as Ethiopia, Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, conflict triggered 9.8 million displacements of people.

But the number of times people were uprooted by disasters far surpassed that figure, at 30.7 million.

Together these factors brought the total number of new displacements in 2020 to 40.5m, a ten-year high, according to new analysis from the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

The secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, called it “shocking” that “someone was forced to flee their home inside their own country every single second last year”.

Weather related events such as storms and floods were responsible for 98% of all disaster displacement, with geophysical events like earthquakes and volcanoes behind the remaining 2%.

Intense cyclone seasons in the Americas, South Asia and East Asia and the Pacific, and extended rainy seasons across the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, drove millions of people from their homes.

Cyclone Amphan alone triggered around five million displacements across Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Myanmar, and the Atlantic hurricane season was the most active on record.

Climate change has created the conditions to make extreme weather events more likely and more numerous, and is expected to increase future displacement.

The report warned against the idea that disasters were something that could be prepared for but not prevented.

And it sought to dispel the “misconception” that disasters were natural, saying human factors have a major role in how they play out.

It said policy tended to overlook that the fact that “exposure and vulnerability of people and assets plays a vital role” in whether a hazard becomes a disaster.

The figures refer to the total number of times people were forced to flee around the world, rather than the overall number of people.

The total number of people living in internal displacement reached a record 55 million at the end of last year.

The IDMC director, Alexandra Bilak said the displacement crises arose from “many interconnected factors, including climate and environmental change, protracted conflicts and political instability”.

“In a world made more fragile by the COVID-19 pandemic, sustained political will and investment in locally-owned solutions will be more important than ever,” she said in a statement.

Sky News has launched the first daily prime time news show dedicated to climate change.

The Daily Climate Show is broadcast at 6.30pm and 9.30pm Monday to Friday on Sky News, the Sky News website and app, on YouTube and Twitter.

Hosted by Anna Jones, it follows Sky News correspondents as they investigate how global warming is changing our landscape and how we all live our lives.

Related posts:

International row reignited over China’s use of anal COVID swabs for foreigners Boko Haram leader ‘killed himself instantly by detonating an explosive’, rivals claim French President Emmanuel Macron slapped during crowd walkabout Lapland records hottest day for more than a century as heatwave grips region Japan considers banning spectators from Tokyo Olympics amid surge in COVID cases ‘Heinous attack’: Biden condemns assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise Ex-South African president to hand himself in for 15-month prison sentence ‘No malicious activity’ behind outage that hit Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, company says ‘The world’s richest are plundering the planet’: Billionaires’ huge carbon footprints prompt call for action New discovery near Pompeii unearths ‘little known’ part of ancient city’s society Reporter who interviewed Peng Shuai says she may not have been able to speak freely Rollercoaster passengers stranded 15 metres above ground after technical fault