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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

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Internal displacement from severe weather events is the main focus today as a report by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) found that the majority of displacements last year – affecting 32.6 million people – was due to disasters including floods, droughts and landslides. 

The report also found that nearly three-quarters of the world’s displaced people live in 10 countries, including Syria, Afghanistan and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The DRC has been experiencing a deadly flood this week which has killed more than 400 people, with ten more killed in a landslide in eastern DRC’s Luberto territory.

And United Nations member states are set to vote by secret ballot on the next head of the International Organization of Migration amid a tense standoff between European incumbent Antonio Vitorino and U.S. candidate Amy Pope. Keep your eyes peeled for the results on Reuters’ Sustainability page.

1. Number of internally displaced people hits record due to war, climate change
The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) reached a record 71.1 million worldwide last year due to conflicts such as the war in Ukraine and climate calamities like the monsoon floods in Pakistan, according to recently published data from the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

Congolese people light candles to pay their tributes to the victims killed following floods during a vigil in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo May 9, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer

2. Congo flood survivors mourn lost relatives as death toll rises above 400
Dead bodies were still being recovered from two villages in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where floods killed more than 400 people last week in one of the country’s deadliest disasters in recent history. Ten more people were killed in a landslide in eastern DRC’s Lubero territory, local authorities said – further victims of recent heavy rains that have killed hundreds in floods in the broader region.

3. Spain to spend 2.2 billion euros to alleviate drought impact

The Spanish government plans to spend 2.19 billion euros ($2.4 billion) on new water supplies, subsidies and direct aid to farmers to alleviate a prolonged and worsening drought they say has decimated production of rice, cereal and olives.

4. Italy must learn to live with drought-inducing weather, minister says

Italy’s long-running drought is a result of climate change, meaning the country must adjust to the new reality, Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida told Reuters.

5. Canadian military deployed to help fight Alberta wildfires

Canada brought in the military to help firefighting and recovery efforts in Alberta after wildfires forced thousands to evacuate homes and prompted several oil and gas producers to shut operations in Canada’s main crude-producing province.

Rising temperatures, a decrease in precipitation and more frequent dust storms in Iraq have affected the environment that bees need to produce honey, lowering their productivity and the quality of the honey produced in the country, beekeepers say. Click on the video for more.

In the port city of Taichung on Taiwan’s west coast, a crane hoists into place the end section of a white wind turbine tower that stands almost a hundred meters tall.

The turbine will be one of 111 spinning at a multibillion-dollar offshore wind project located up to 60 kilometers into the Taiwan Strait, which is being built by Denmark’s Orsted and will supply enough electricity for a million homes.

40,000 barrels

An estimated 40,000 barrels of crude oil leaked during the loading of an oil tanker at Shell’s giant Bonga oil field, 120 km off the coast of the Nigeria delta on Dec. 20, 2011.

A group of 27,800 individuals and 457 communities have been trying to sue Shell, saying the resulting oil slick polluted their lands and waterways, damaging farming, fishing, drinking water, mangrove forests and religious shrines.

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