MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Egeland added that catastrophes occur when people are unprepared and unprotected from natural disasters.
"The millions of lives devastated by disasters is more often a consequence of bad man-made structures and policies, than the forces of mother nature," Secretary of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) General Jan Egeland said according to NRC's official website.
Man-made factors, like urbanization, rapid economic development and increasing populations in hazard-prone areas are main drivers of disaster displacement, and increased global displacement will be seen as climate change becomes more acute, the report reads.
The report revealed that weather-related hazards such as floods and storms forced 17.5 million people around the world to leave their homes, and geophysical hazards such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions caused 1.7 million evacuations.
Some 16.7 million people displaced in 2014 live in Asia, and the highest levels of displacement were reported in China, India and the Philippines.
