Migration driven by climate change poses a “growing threat” to UK food security, green experts have warned. UK imports are under threat because £3 billion worth of food is coming to Britain from the 20 countries with the highest numbers of internally displaced people from extreme weather disasters, the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said.
Gareth Redmond-King, head of international programme at the ECIU, said: “UK farmers are being hit by extremes of wet and dry, threatening livelihoods, yields and our food security. “But when floods and droughts force farmers overseas to leave their homes, they often head to the cities which not only breaks apart communities but raises questions about a growing threat of who is going to farm the food we have to import like rice.”
Over a two-year period the impacts of climate change added an average £361 to every UK household’s food bills, the ECIU said.
At least 40% of the food eaten in the UK is imported – around half of which is made up of crops not grown here.
Mr Redmond-King said: “We saw during the recent floods in Pakistan how farmers fled the land. The price of rice shot up.
“If we are to continue to import the foods from abroad we can’t grow here, the UK is increasingly going to have to support these farmers through climate finance. Ultimately, unless we reach net zero emissions we don’t stop climate change, and these threats to our food security will continue to worsen.”
Pakistan is the second biggest supplier of rice to the UK with over £120 million of rice imported from the country last year, and rice is bought by 88% of British households, the ECIU’s report showed.
In August 2022, Pakistan saw three times its usual rainfall with scientists concluding it “likely” that climate change had played a role in driving these extreme monsoon rains.
The average price the UK paid per kilo for Pakistani rice rose by a third (33%) after this, meaning consumers paid more for less rice as yields were hit by the floods and resulting internal displacements.
Climate change threatens crops and the people growing them, with extreme weather disasters increasingly forcing people to move particularly from rural areas, which can compound the threat already posed to food security
By the end of 2024, of 83 million people who were internally displaced in their own countries worldwide, nearly 10 million were displaced by disasters – up 29% on the number the previous year.