Climate visas could give victims of natural disasters safe route to UK, says thinktank

New climate visas should be created to allow victims of natural disasters to come to the UK, and to bring in skilled workers needed for the transition to net zero, a Conservative thinktank has argued.

Onward, whose co-founder Will Tanner recently became Rishi Sunak’s deputy chief of staff, is urging the government to prepare for the likely increase in global migration as a result of the climate crisis.

The authors of the report call for the government to prioritise financial support for climate adaptation in developing countries, but also to open up new legal migration routes.

“We cannot allow climate-related migration to become the defining crisis of the 21st century. The government needs to act now to build climate resilience in the most vulnerable regions on the planet and open up safe and legal visa routes for those fleeing environmental disasters,” said the report’s co-author, Ted Christie-Miller.

Despite the hardline rhetoric on the illegal immigration bill by the home secretary, Suella Braverman, the authors suggest that welcoming a limited number of climate refugees…