Sahel: Climate Change

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb Excerpts

Wednesday 24th July 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sugg]

The Sahel has one of the fastest growing populations in the world, with some of the world’s highest fertility rates. The combined populations of the G5 nations will nearly treble from 71 million today to more than 200 million by 2100. On average, a woman in Niger has a birth rate of 7.4 children and fewer than one in 10 couples uses modern contraception. We are rolling out the women’s integrated sexual health programme, WISH, which will operate in parts of the Sahel to improve access to modern family planning methods and create more choices for women in Africa on how many children they have and when they have them.

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP)]

My Lords, even if we get to our net carbon zero target by 2050, parts of the world will have become uninhabitable. Will the Government publish a climate migration strategy? We have been polluting for 200 years, so we have a duty to take our fair share of climate migrants.

[Baroness Sugg]

I agree with the noble Baroness about duty. Often, the countries most affected by climate change are those who emit the least. The suggestion about a strategy is interesting; I will take it back to the department for discussion.