The United Nations refugee agency on Friday warned that the climate emergency is an immediate crisis for people forced from their homes. Three in four refugees, nearly 90 million people, live in countries with high or severe exposure to drought, floods and extreme heat, the agency said.

The warning is in a report, No Escape III, published ahead of the COP31 climate conference, which opens next week in Antalya, Türkiye. Money meant to address climate change is not reaching many communities at risk, the refugee agency, UNHCR, said.

Fragile, conflict-affected countries that shelter large refugee populations receive only about 10% of global climate funding, according to the report. Antón Leis García, Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, said, “Refugees face a double injustice. Forced to flee conflicts they did not cause, they are now on the frontlines of a climate crisis they have contributed least to.”

The report includes accounts from eight people in displaced communities, among them Monira Bahraldin of Sudan. She left El Fasher, in the Darfur region, in June 2023 and now lives in a settlement in eastern Chad, where drought and fighting continue, the report said. She told the authors that the hottest part of Chad’s dry season is much hotter than in Darfur, and that collecting water takes longer just as her family needs more of it.

By 2050, one in three refugee settlements in sub-Saharan Africa could see at least 100 days of dangerous heat a year, according to the report. Over the past decade, weather-related disasters set off hundreds of millions of moves inside countries, it said. Flooding tied to El Niño is expected to push three million people from their homes in Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda before the year ends.

Lasting solutions are also harder to find, the report said. In the first half of 2026, more than two-thirds of refugees who went home returned to countries highly vulnerable to climate hazards. In Syria, nearly four million people have come back recently, but falling groundwater and severe climate shocks threaten recovery after more than a decade of war. Flooding on the Euphrates River in May damaged homes and forced thousands to move again.

Nearly 90% of people without a nationality live in countries highly exposed to climate hazards, the report said. When a disaster hits, many cannot get relief because they lack legal recognition.

Refugees and host communities are also testing local responses, the report said, including water systems powered by the sun in the Sahel, hardier farming in Uganda, and restoration of land and mangroves in Colombia. “COP31 must be a turning point, recognising their leadership and translating bold commitments into concrete investments that reach those most at risk,” Leis García said.