Aaj English TV

Thursday, December 05, 2024  
03 Jumada Al-Akhirah 1446  

Actor Theo James urges more support for refugees hit by climate crisis

'Refugees do not contribute to the vast majority of rising global temperatures but they are on the frontline of suffering.'
James, whose grandfather was a refugee who fled Greece for Syria during World War Two, will join the UN refugee agency and refugee advocates at the climate summit in Baku. Photo via Facebook/UNHCR
James, whose grandfather was a refugee who fled Greece for Syria during World War Two, will join the UN refugee agency and refugee advocates at the climate summit in Baku. Photo via Facebook/UNHCR

Refugees should be included in climate policy, actor and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) goodwill ambassador Theo James has said as he heads to COP29 to call for greater support for those affected by the impact of climate change.

James, whose grandfather was a refugee who fled Greece for Syria during World War Two, will join the UN refugee agency and refugee advocates at the climate summit in Baku.

The Gentlemen and Divergent actor travelled to Mauritania’s southeastern Hodh Chargui region last month, meeting refugees who had fled conflict in Mali for an area already facing poverty, limited access to basic services and climate shocks.

The semi-arid Sahel has been hit by increasing weather extremes including higher temperatures and drought.

“Refugees do not contribute to the vast majority of rising global temperatures and carbon emissions but they are on the frontline of suffering,” James told Reuters.

In its first climate report released on Tuesday, the UNHCR said three out of four forcibly displaced people worldwide — 90 million out of 120 million — lived in countries exposed to high to extreme climate change impacts.

“Now the UNHCR has… specific data which links the climate crisis to forcibly displaced people and the refugee crisis, we need to amplify the message that those two things are intimately interlinked,” James said.

“They will forever be hand in hand and more so in the future.”

The summit has been dubbed the “climate finance COP” for its central goal: to agree on how much money should go each year to helping developing countries cope with climate-related costs.

For the latest news, follow us on Twitter @Aaj_Urdu. We are also on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

climate change

refugees