Can We House 100 Million Refugees?

Sir Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Group Ltd., explains why the current refugee crisis is nothing compared to what’s coming if we don’t act together to address Goal 13.

We can no longer afford to ignore climate change.

Reports from the IPCC show that each of the last three decades has been warmer than the previous one, and it’s likely that 1983–2012 was the warmest period of the past 1,400 years.

According to NASA, climate change is causing heatwaves, wildfires, increased drought, reduced agricultural yields, water scarcity, flooding, erosion and poorer air quality in the US. Globally, the problem is worse.

Without a doubt, human activity is the dominant cause of climate change. Economic development and population growth around the world have led to atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases that the planet hasn’t seen in 800,000 years.

If we do nothing, the future will look bleak. Twenty-five percent of Earth’s species could be heading for extinction by 2050. Some turtle species – which are among my favourite animals – may be gone within a century. A number of small islands are being abandoned because of rising sea levels, and their citizens are becoming the world’s first climate change refugees.

By 2100, 100 million people could be displaced, making the current refugee crisis seem small. To give you another idea of scale, rising sea levels could swamp every city on the east coast of the US. The price tag for all of this is estimated to come to roughly 20 percent of global GDP.

On September 25th, 193 world leaders will adopt the Global Goals, a series of 17 ambitious milestones to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and combat climate change by 2030.

The goals are the best chance we have of tackling the momentous challenges we face. We can call on leaders to make brave decisions, but it’s up to all of us to put our hands up to become global citizens. The Global Goals cannot be achieved by governments alone – they require action by all countries, all citizens and all companies.

The aim is to share the Global Goals with all seven billion people of the world in just seven days. To do this, a broad alliance of partners – from the world’s biggest brands and the largest NGOs to the smallest radio station – have committed make the goals famous. If the Global Goals are famous they will not be forgotten.

I urge you to turn your attention to the Global Goals – in particular Goal 13, which is dedicated to Climate Action. We all hold a stake in this, and together we can turn the tide.

Tell everyone, so we can drive the change that the world so desperately needs.