Across dozens of countries, the global climate crisis is not impending – it has arrived. In 2023, climate disasters drove millions of the world’s most vulnerable women and girls from their homes, exposing them to threat of sexual and gender-based violence, harmful practices like child marriage and preventable death during pregnancy and childbirth.

New data from UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre reveal that more than a third of displacements in 2023 involving women and girls and driven by crises such as floods, cyclones and earthquakes occurred in countries at the highest risk of climate emergencies, but least prepared for them.

See more on climate change’s severe impacts for women and girls

Not all natural catastrophes can be planned for, and some may have no connection to climate change (although scientists are increasingly researching the links between earthquakes and droughts).