The Coalition of Aid and Development Agencies (CADA), in partnership with Sustainable NI, organised an informal cross-party meeting on behalf of the All-Party Group on Climate Action and All-Party Group for International Development to discuss how climate threats will change the patterns of human settlement around the world in the coming decades.
The meeting featured award-winning science writer and BBC presenter Gaia Vince, known for her work on climate change, globalisation, and human migration. Vince told the group that with every degree of temperature rise due to global warming, a billion people will be displaced from where they live.
She highlighted that while we must do everything we can to mitigate the impact of climate change, the brutal truth is that huge swathes of the world are becoming uninhabitable. She noted how widespread the toxic narrative around migration really is, why international cooperation is vital, and offered a hopeful vision for the future of radical migration.
Although Ireland will undoubtedly have to adapt to a changing climate, Northern Ireland, and Ireland as a whole, will still have a relatively moderate climate by the end of the century, in comparison to other countries. Ireland could become the Costa Rica of the global north, Vince said, noting the tourism opportunities that could bring - if the right choices are made to value and protect nature.
Gaia Vince's book Nomad Century: How To Survive The Climate Upheaval is published by Penguin Books.
