UN Warns Nearly 900 m Poor Face Climate Peril

A child plays in a fountain to cool off in of Seoul on July 10, 2025. Photo: Collected

Nearly 900 million of the world’s poorest people—almost 80% of those living in acute poverty—are directly exposed to the devastating effects of climate change, the United Nations warned on Friday, calling it a “double and deeply unequal burden” on humanity’s most vulnerable.

“No one is immune to the increasingly frequent and intense climate shocks such as droughts, floods, heat waves, and air pollution,” said Haoliang Xu, Acting Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). “But it’s the poorest among us who are suffering the harshest impacts.”

Xu emphasised that the upcoming COP30 climate summit in Brazil in November must be “a moment for world leaders to see climate action as action against poverty.”

Poverty and climate crisis intertwined

According to an annual study jointly published by UNDP and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), 1.1 billion people—around 18% of the 6.3 billion in 109 countries surveyed—live in “acute multidimensional poverty.”

The measure considers factors beyond income, including child mortality, nutrition, education, housing, sanitation, electricity, and clean water access. Alarmingly, half of these people are children.

The report illustrates this deprivation through the life of Ricardo, a member of the Guarani Indigenous community near Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia’s largest city. He works as a day labourer, sharing a cramped home with 18 relatives, including his parents and three children. The house has one bathroom, a wood- and coal-fired kitchen, and none of the children attend school—conditions that exemplify the entrenched, multidimensional nature of poverty.

Poverty hotspots highly climate-vulnerable

Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are identified as the two regions suffering most from the twin crises of poverty and climate vulnerability. These areas are not only home to hundreds of millions of impoverished people but also bear the brunt of environmental hazards.

The study links poverty to four primary climate-related threats: extreme heat, drought, flooding, and air pollution. Many poor households depend on agriculture or informal work—sectors that are particularly susceptible to climate shocks.

“When hazards overlap or strike repeatedly, they compound existing deprivations,” the report notes, adding that such cycles can reverse years of progress in poverty reduction.

Scale of exposure

The findings are stark:

887 million people—nearly 79% of those in acute poverty—are exposed to at least one major climate hazard. of them, 608 million face extreme heat, 577 million suffer from chronic air pollution, 465 million are at risk of floods and 207 million endure recurrent droughts.

Furthermore, 651 million people face two or more simultaneous climate risks, while 11 million poor individuals endure all four within a single year—an indication of how compounding crises deepen suffering.

South Asia’s fragile progress

While South Asia has made notable strides in reducing poverty, the report warns that its gains remain fragile. A staggering 99.1% of the region’s poor population is exposed to at least one climate hazard. The authors stress that South Asia “must once again chart a new path forward, one that balances determined poverty reduction with innovative climate action.”

Global call for urgent action

The UNDP report cautions that rising global temperatures will continue to magnify inequalities unless immediate and coordinated action is taken. As the planet warms, the poorest countries—often with the least capacity to adapt—are expected to suffer the most severe consequences.

“Responding to overlapping risks requires prioritising both people and the planet,” the report concludes. “We must move from recognition to rapid action.”

It urges policymakers to integrate poverty alleviation and climate adaptation strategies, ensuring that climate finance reaches the most affected communities. Without such measures, the UN warns, climate change could push millions more into destitution—erasing decades of hard-earned development progress.