Vulnerability to Climate Change and Poverty

Abstract

Many studies have assessed the vulnerability of countries, regions, and population groups to the adverse impacts of climate change in order to identify priorities for action. These studies have sometimes come to rather different conclusions on the vulnerability of different countries and the relationship between vulnerability and poverty. This chapter starts by explaining the main interpretations of vulnerability in climate change assessments. It finds that the concept of vulnerability inevitably requires normative judgements and that the seemingly inconsistent conclusions of vulnerability assessments can be largely explained by different interpretations of this term. The text continues by identifying the main socio-economic and biophysical factors that determine the vulnerability of countries to climate change and assessing their relationship with poverty. The results imply that the generally greater vulnerability of poor countries and people is due not only to their lower socio-economic capacity but also to climatic and environmental factors. Poor people generally live in regions whose current climate is marginal and many of them are directly dependent on climate-sensitive resources for their livelihoods. A global analysis, as presented here, can provide important guidance for the development of international climate policy. However, the planning and implementation of actions to reduce the vulnerability requires much more detailed information and not the least the genuine involvement of the people affected by these actions.