Editing IPCC:AR6/WGII/Chapter-8 (section)

=== FAQ 8.1 | Why are people who are poor and disadvantaged especially vulnerable to climate change and why do climate change impacts worsen inequality? ===

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''Poor people and their livelihoods are especially vulnerable to climate change because they usually have fewer assets and less access to funding, technologies and political influence. Combined, these constraints mean they have fewer resources to adapt to climate change impacts. Climate change impacts tend to worsen inequalities because they disproportionately affect disadvantaged groups. This in turn further increases their vulnerability to climate change impacts and reduces their ability to cope and recover.''

Climate change and related hazards (e.g., droughts, floods, heat stress, etc.) affect many aspects of people’s lives—such as their health, access to food and housing, or their source of income such as crops or fish stocks—and many will have to adapt their way of life in order to deal with these impacts. People who are poor and have few resources with which to adapt are thus much more seriously negatively affected by climate-related hazards. ‘Vulnerability’ is when a person or community is not able to cope and adapt to climate-related hazards. For example, if someone who is very rich has their house washed away in a flood, this is terrible, but they often have more resources to rebuild, have insurances that support recovery and maybe even build a house that is not in a flood-prone area. Whereas for someone who is very poor and who does not live in a state that provides support, the loss of their house in a flood could mean homelessness. This example shows that the same climate hazard (flood) can have a very different impact on people depending on their vulnerability (their capacity to cope and adapt to hazards).

It is not just poverty that can make people more vulnerable to climate change and climate-related hazards. Disadvantage due to discrimination, gender and income inequalities and lack of access to resources (e.g., those with disabilities or of minority groups) can mean these groups have fewer resources with which to prepare and react to climate change and to cope with and recover from its adverse effects. They are therefore more vulnerable. This vulnerability can then increase due to climate change impacts in a vicious cycle unless adaptation measures are supported and made possible.

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