Climate change could bring mass migration

Drastic climate change could bring mass migration from Africa as water shortages, droughts and famine could push vast numbers from their homes, the UK Space Agency’s chief scientist has warned. The Government has invested £150million over five years to set up programmes that can monitor sea-level rise, crop failure, natural disasters, deforestation, coastal erosion, oil spillages and water shortages, as well as predict tsunamis and storm surge flooding.

CLIMATE change could bring mass migration from Africa, along with plant diseases, the UK Space Agency’s chief scientist has warned, as he said foreign aid was being used to fund satellites that monitor vulnerable countries.

Dr Chris Lee said global warming could lead to water shortages, droughts and famine, which could push vast numbers from their homes.

In an effort to help countries to prepare for climate change, the Government has invested £150 million over five years to set up programmes that can monitor sea-level rise, crop failure, natural disasters, deforestation, coastal erosion, oil spillages and water shortages, as well as predict tsunamis and storm surge flooding.

The technology is also helping to connect people in remote areas.

But Dr Lee said it would also help Britain prepare for the devastation that climate change could bring at home.

“Satellite technology has allowed us to think about prevention rather than reaction,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “Africa, in particular, is going to have a lot of migration as they find water more difficult to locate and purify.

“We want to help nations find that water themselves, find those reservoirs through satellite technology, rather than those nations getting nervous, and then many migrants moving on to the European continent. We’re looking at how meteorological data can assist the elimination of pest disease.

“And we can start to see how crop diseases will affect our own food baskets, because either these crops that we take for granted now, like cocoa and coffee, will start to suffer from pests, or those pests will come into the UK and affect our crops.”

The International Partnership Programme (IPP) began in 2016, and supports 3,300 jobs.