Climate change and poverty reduction

This policy brief argues that climate change hinders the achievement of development goals by disproportionately affecting the 'climate-vulnerable poor'. It calls for the integration of poverty reduction and adaptation strategies, a stronger evidence base on climate-poverty links, and a cautious approach to mitigation that prioritizes developmental co-benefits.

• Climate change creates significant barriers to eradicating poverty, particularly for populations with low adaptive capacity. The document notes that "More variable climates are making it harder for the poor to climb out and stay out of poverty."
• Climate-related events have caused specific health and economic crises in Africa. In 2002, over half of households in Lesotho and Swaziland reported reduced health spending during a food crisis. Flooding in eastern Africa in 2007 led to malaria and Rift Valley Fever epidemics, and 2006 floods in Ethiopia caused a cholera epidemic.
• Droughts in Africa have lasting residual effects on children's health and future earnings. In Ethiopia, children born during drought years are 36% more likely to be malnourished and 41% more likely to be stunted. In Kenya, the likelihood of malnourishment increases by 50%. In Niger, children aged two or under born during drought years are 72% more likely to be stunted. In Zimbabwe, such children are on average 2.3 cm shorter and may lose 14% of lifetime earnings due to a 0.4 year loss of school life.
• Climate change threatens the four basic 'securities' of poverty reduction strategies: food security (risk of hunger may increase up to 30% by 2080), water security (changing rainfall makes access more difficult), energy security (higher temperatures and less rain make biomass fuel scarcer), and human security (disasters make vulnerable people less secure). These pressures can lead to "governance breakdowns".
• Effective poverty reduction requires integrating adaptation into development planning, moving away from the "artificial distinction" between the two. While some integration has occurred in Bangladesh and Mali, a 2009 evaluation of the Least Developed Countries Fund found that most countries have only integrated adaptation into poverty reduction within "high-level policy statements".
• Making the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa resilient to climate change is estimated to be 40% more expensive than in a scenario without climate change.
• The pursuit of a 'triple win'—combining development, adaptation, and mitigation—has been difficult to achieve. Many Clean Development Mechanism projects have not addressed poverty or been implemented in the poorest countries, and pursuing mitigation in less developed countries has often resulted in "unjustifiably high developmental opportunity costs".

APA

Anderson, S. (2011). Climate change and poverty reduction. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/CDKN_poverty-reduction_FINAL.pdf

Chicago

Anderson, Simon. Climate change and poverty reduction. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2011. https://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/CDKN_poverty-reduction_FINAL.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Anderson |first1=Simon |title=Climate change and poverty reduction |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=August 2011 |url=https://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/CDKN_poverty-reduction_FINAL.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{anderson2011climate, author = {Anderson, Simon}, title = {{Climate change and poverty reduction}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2011}, month = aug, url = {https://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/CDKN_poverty-reduction_FINAL.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }