Nearly 900 million poor people are exposed to climate crises, the UN warns

Nearly 80% of the world’s poorest, or some 900 million people, are directly exposed to climate risks exacerbated by global warming, carrying a “double and profoundly unequal burden”, the United Nations warned on Friday.

“No one is immune to the increasingly frequent and stronger impacts of climate change, such as droughts, floods, heat waves and air pollution, but it is the poorest among us who face the harshest effects,” said Haoliang Xu, deputy administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. AFP in a statement.

COP30, the UN climate summit in Brazil in November, “is the moment for world leaders to see climate action as anti-poverty action,” he added.

According to an annual study published by the UNDP together with the Oxford Initiative on Poverty and Human Development, 1.1 billion people, or about 18% of the 6.3 billion in 109 countries analyzed, live in “acute multidimensional” poverty, based on factors such as infant mortality and access to housing, sanitation, electricity and the education.

Half of these people are minors.

An example of such extreme deprivation cited in the report is the case of Ricardo, a member of the indigenous Guarani community who lives outside Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia’s largest city.

Ricardo, who earns a meager income as a daily wage worker, shares his small single-family home with 18 other people, including his three children, his parents and other extended family members.

The house has only one bathroom, a wood and coal kitchen and none of the children go to school.

“Their lives reflect the multidimensional reality of poverty,” the report says.

Putting ‘people and planet’ first

Two regions particularly affected by such poverty are sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia — and are also highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

The report highlights the link between poverty and exposure to four environmental hazards: extreme heat, drought, flooding and air pollution.

“Poor households are particularly vulnerable to climate shocks, as many depend on highly vulnerable sectors such as agriculture and informal work,” the report says.

“When risks overlap or strike repeatedly, they exacerbate existing deprivations.”

As a result, 887 million people, or nearly 79 percent of these poor populations, are directly exposed to at least one of these threats, with 608 million people suffering from extreme heat, 577 million affected by pollution, 465 million by floods and 207 million by drought.

About 651 million are exposed to at least two of the risks, 309 million to three or four risks, and 11 million poor people have already experienced all four in a single year.

“Simultaneous poverty and climate risks are clearly a global issue,” the report said.

And the increase in extreme weather events threatens development progress.

While South Asia has made progress in fighting poverty, 99.1 percent of its poor population is exposed to at least one climate hazard.

The region “must once again chart a new path forward that balances decisive poverty reduction with innovative climate action,” the report says.

With the Earth’s surface warming rapidly, the situation is likely to worsen further, and experts warn that today’s poorest countries will be hit hardest by rising temperatures.

“Responding to overlapping risks requires prioritizing both people and the planet, and above all, moving from recognition to rapid action,” the report says.