PEOPLE in low and lower-middle income countries are five times more likely to be forced from their homes by ‘sudden-onset’ weather disasters than people in richer countries, according to Oxfam.

In Uprooted by Climate Change, Oxfam has looked at data from 2008 to 2016 to show that on average, extreme weather displaced 14 million people in low-income countries, compared to approximately 1 millionin high-income countries. In total, 23.5 million people were newly displaced in 2016 by extreme weather.

Tracy Carty, Oxfam GB’s climate change policy and advocacy lead, said: “Climate change is eating away shores and flooding homes.”