Millions Face Multiple Climate Shocks, Warns UN

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - In a groundbreaking and deeply alarming new report that for the first time overlays detailed climate data with comprehensive poverty metrics, the United Nations has revealed the powerful and devastating link between global poverty and the escalating climate crisis, finding that a staggering 80 percent of the world's poor—some 887 million people—live in regions that are directly exposed to extreme heat, flooding, and other severe climate hazards.

The report, released on Friday by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Oxford University, paints a grim picture of a world where the most vulnerable populations are being disproportionately and often simultaneously battered by multiple climate shocks, a reality that is fundamentally reshaping the nature of global poverty and demanding an urgent and holistic global response.

"Poverty is no longer a standalone socio-economic issue," UNDP Acting Administrator Haoliang Xu told UN News. "Instead, poverty is compounded by and interlinked with the increasingly dramatic effects of the climate emergency.”

The landmark report, which was released ahead of the crucial COP30 climate summit set to take place in Brazil next month, represents a significant leap forward in understanding the complex and interwoven nature of these two defining global challenges.

By combining, for the first time, detailed data on climate hazards with the Multidimensional Poverty Index—a comprehensive measure that goes beyond income to include factors such as health, education, and living standards—the authors have been able to create a high-resolution map of the "twin crises" of poverty and climate vulnerability.

The key and most sobering finding of the report is the sheer scale of the overlap. Globally, the report identifies 1.1 billion people as living in a state of multidimensional poverty. Of this vast population, a staggering 887 million, or nearly 80 percent, are living in regions that are directly and frequently exposed to at least one major climate hazard.

The report specifically highlights high heat, air pollution, floods, and droughts as the most widespread and damaging hazards affecting the world's poor.

The crisis is not just one of singular threats, but of multiple, compounding shocks.

The report reveals that a staggering 651 million of the world's poor are enduring the effects of two or more of these climate hazards simultaneously, while a deeply vulnerable cohort of 309 million people are living in regions that are being battered by three or even four of these climate shocks at the same time.

This reality of "poly-crisis" means that for hundreds of millions of people, a drought may be followed by a flood, or a heatwave may be compounded by life-threatening air pollution, creating a relentless cycle of disaster and recovery that makes it virtually impossible to escape from the grip of poverty.

The report identifies two primary geographical "hotspots" where this convergence of poverty and climate vulnerability is most acute: South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. These two regions, which are already home to the largest numbers of the world's poor, are also the most exposed to the ravages of climate change.

According to the report, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa account for 380 million and 344 million of the poor people living in regions affected by climate hazards, respectively.

The situation in South Asia is particularly dire. The report finds that "practically every person living in poverty" in the region—a staggering 99.1 percent—is confronting one or more climate shocks. South Asia also leads the world in the number of people facing multiple hazards, with an astonishing 351 million people, or 91.6 percent of the region's poor, being subjected to two or more of these climate-related disasters.

The report also uncovers a "hidden epicentre" of this twin crisis: middle-income countries. "Middle-income countries are a hidden epicentre of multidimensional poverty, being home to nearly two-thirds of all poor people.

And this is also where the climate crisis and poverty are notably converging,” Sabina Alkire, the Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, told UN News. The report estimates that roughly 548 million poor people in lower middle-income countries are exposed to at least one climate hazard, with over 470 million of them facing two or more.

Looking to the future, the report's projections are even more alarming. It reveals a cruel and unjust feedback loop, finding that the very countries that currently have the highest levels of multidimensional poverty are also the ones that are expected to experience the greatest and most dramatic increases in temperature by the end of the century.

This means that the most vulnerable nations, which have contributed the least to the historical emissions that are driving the climate crisis, are set to suffer its most severe consequences, a reality that raises profound questions of climate justice and global responsibility.

In the face of this overwhelming and escalating crisis, the report's authors have underscored the urgent and absolute need for immediate and concerted global action. They argue that the complex and interrelated nature of these problems demands a new and more integrated approach.

“From our point of view at UNDP, addressing such complex and interrelated issues requires holistic, cross-sectoral solutions that are adequately funded and implemented with urgency,” said Mr. Xu of the UNDP.

This call for holistic solutions is a clear rejection of the siloed, single-issue approaches of the past, and a demand for a new paradigm of development and climate action that recognizes the deep and inextricable links between the well-being of people and the health of the planet.

Despite the grim findings, the report's authors are adamant that the path forward is one of hope and cooperation. "As we look to COP30, we carry forward a message of hope and cooperation," Mr. Xu stated.

"We know what works and can continue to support the populations and countries in need.” This message of hope is a call to the international community to mobilize the political will and the financial resources necessary to meet this monumental challenge, a challenge that, as the report so powerfully demonstrates, lies at the very heart of the global struggle for a more just, equitable, and sustainable future.