Climate Change Will Increase Poverty

The World Bank estimates that 702 million people (9.6 percent of the world's population) lives in poverty--down from 902 million (12.8 percent) in 2012. But a World Bank report, Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty, warns that that progress might end.

The key finding of the report is that climate change represents a significant obstacle to the sustained eradication of poverty, but future impacts on poverty are determined by policy choices: rapid, inclusive, and climateinformed development can prevent most short-term impacts whereas immediate propoor, emissions-reduction policies can drastically limit long-term ones:

Climate-related shocks and stresses, already a major obstacle to poverty reduction, will worsen with climate change.

In the short run, rapid, inclusive, and climate-informed development can prevent most (but not all) consequences of climate change on poverty. Absent such good development, climate change could result in an additional 100 million people living in extreme poverty by 2030.

Immediate mitigation is required to remove the long-term threat that climate change creates for poverty eradication. Mitigation need not threaten short-term progress on poverty reduction provided policies are well designed and international support is available.