How will climate change hurt the world’s poor?

In 1991, 36% of the world population lived in poverty. By 2015, that number was down to 10%. Climate change is one of the most immediate threats to this progress, and by 2030 it could throw 100 million more people into poverty.

The entire globe is under threat from climate change, but it is the world’s poorest who are at the most risk of seeing its immediate effects if we do not meet the goal of maintaining climate change below a 2°C increase in global temperature above preindustrial levels.

In their report, Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty, the World Bank outlines why climate change has such an impact on the poor and what can be done to tackle both challenges as a whole.

The poor are at a substantially higher risk of losing their assets during natural disasters. This phenomenon has already been documented. In Honduras, for example, after hurricane Mitch, the poor lost 30% of their assets. That was three times more than those who were not poor.

The World Bank has warned that without intervention, climate change could claim crop yields, creating losses of up to 5% by 2030 and 30% by 2080. The resulting higher food prices would drive the poorest who can not afford the new prices to go hungry. The rise in temperature could also fuel the spread of diseases such as of malaria and diarrhea.

In addition to the need for strong and swift action on climate change, the report stresses the need to expand social protections, universal health coverage and climate resistant crops to help fight poverty.

Author: Donald Armbrecht is a freelance writer and social media producer.

Image: Smoke rises from the waste heap at a saw-mill at a lagoon near the Makoko Riverine Slum in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos. REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye