Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-13T01:14:39.895Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Poverty and climate change: introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2018

Stephane Hallegatte ,
Marianne Fay  and
Edward B. Barbier
Stephane Hallegatte*
Affiliation:
Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, World Bank Group, Washington DC, USA
Marianne Fay
Affiliation:
Sustainable Development Vice-Presidency, World Bank Group, Washington DC, USA
Edward B. Barbier
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: shallegatte@worldbank.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Because their assets and income represent such a small share of national wealth, the impacts of climate change on poor people, even if dramatic, will be largely invisible in aggregate economic statistics such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Assessing and managing future impacts of climate change on poverty requires different metrics, and specific studies focusing on the vulnerability of poor people. This special issue provides a set of such studies, looking at the exposure and vulnerability of people living in poverty to shocks and stressors that are expected to increase in frequency or intensity due to climate change, such as floods, droughts, heat waves, and impacts on agricultural production and ecosystem services. This introduction summarizes their approach and findings, which support the idea that the link between poverty and climate vulnerability goes both ways: poverty is one major driver of people's vulnerability to climate-related shocks and stressors, and this vulnerability is keeping people in poverty. The paper concludes by identifying priorities for future research.

Keywords

Climate changedevelopmentpovertysocial protectionwelfare

JEL classification

Q54: Climate • Natural Disasters and Their Management • Global Warming Q56: Environment and Development • Environment and Trade • Sustainability • Environmental Accounts and Accounting • Environmental Equity • Population Growth I30: General I38: Government Policy • Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
Type
Introduction
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 23 , Special Issue 3: Poverty and Climate Change , June 2018 , pp. 217 - 233
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adger, WN, Pulhin, JM, Barnett, J, Dabelko, GD, Hovelsrud, GK, Levy, M, Oswald Spring, Ú and Vogel, CH (2014) Human security. In Field CB, Barros, VR, Dokken, DJ, Mach, KJ, Mastrandrea, MD, Bilir, TE, Chatterjee, M, Ebi, KL, Estrada, YO, Genova, RC, Girma, B, Kissel, ES, Levy, AN, MacCracken, S, Mastrandrea, PR and White, LL (eds). Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change. Cambridge, UK and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, pp. 755–791.Google Scholar
Akter, S and Mallick, B (2013) The poverty–vulnerability–resilience nexus: evidence from Bangladesh. Ecological Economics 96, 114–124.Google Scholar
Alderman, H, Hoddinott, J and Kinsey, B (2006) Long term consequences of early childhood malnutrition. Oxford Economic Papers 58, 450–474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angelsen, A and Dokken, T (2018) Climate exposure, vulnerability and environmental reliance: a cross-section analysis of structural and stochastic poverty. Environment and Development Economics 23(3). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355770X18000013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angelsen, A, Jagger, P, Babigumira, R, Belcher, B, Hogarth, NJ, Bauch, S, Börner, J, Smith-Hall, C and Wunder, S (2014) Environmental income and rural livelihoods: a global-comparative analysis. World Development, Forests, Livelihoods, and Conservation 64, S12–S28. [Available at] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.03.006.Google Scholar
Arent, DJ, Tol, RSJ, Faust, E, Hella, JP, Kumar, S, Strzepek, KM, Tóth, FL and Yan, D (2014) Key economic sectors and services. In Field CB, Barros, VR, Dokken, DJ, Mach, KJ, Mastrandrea, MD, Bilir, TE, Chatterjee, M, Ebi, KL, Estrada, YO, Genova, RC, Girma, B, Kissel, ES, Levy, AN, MacCracken, S, Mastrandrea, PR and White, LL (eds). Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change. Cambridge, UK and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, pp. 659–708.Google Scholar
Barbier, EB and Hochard, JP (2018) Poverty, rural population distribution and climate change. Environment and Development Economics 23(3). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355770X17000353.Google Scholar
Baulch, B (2011) Why Poverty Persists: Poverty Dynamics in Asia and Africa. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.Google Scholar
Béné, C (2009) Are fishers poor or vulnerable? Assessing economic vulnerability in small-scale fishing communities. Journal of Development Studies 45, 911–933.Google Scholar
Brouwer, R, Akter, S, Brander, L and Haque, E (2007) Socioeconomic vulnerability and adaptation to environmental risk: a case study of climate change and flooding in Bangladesh. Risk Analysis 27(2), 313–326.Google Scholar
Carter, MR and Janzen, SA (2018) Social protection in the face of climate change: targeting principles and financing mechanisms. Environment and Development Economics 23. https://doi.org/10.1017/ S1355770X17000407.Google Scholar
Carter, MR, Little, PD, Mogues, T and Negatu, W (2007) Poverty traps and natural disasters in Ethiopia and Honduras. World Development 35, 835–856.Google Scholar
Castañeda, A, Doan, D, Newhouse, D, Nguyen, MC, Uematsu, H and Azevedo, JP (2018) A new profile of the global poor. World Development 101, 250–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
del Ninno, C, Dorosh, PA, Smith, LC and Roy, DK (2001) The 1998 Floods in Bangladesh: Disaster Impacts, Household Coping Strategies, and Response. Research Report No. 122, International Food Policy Research Institute.Google Scholar
Dennig, F, Budolfson, MB, Fleurbaey, M, Siebert, A and Socolow, RH (2015) Inequality, climate impacts on the future poor, and carbon prices. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, 15827–15832.Google Scholar
Dollar, D and Kraay, A (2002) Growth is good for the poor. Journal of Economic Growth 7, 195–225.Google Scholar
Dollar, D, Kleineberg, T and Kraay, A (2013) Growth Still is Good for the Poor. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 6568, Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Elbers, C, Gunning, JW and Kinsey, B (2007) Growth and risk: methodology and micro evidence. World Bank Economic Review 21(1), 1–20.Google Scholar
Hallegatte, S and Rozenberg, J (2017) Climate change through a poverty lens. Nature Climate Change 7, 250–256.Google Scholar
Hallegatte, S, Bangalore, M, Bonzanigo, L, Fay, M, Narloch, U, Rozenberg, J and Vogt-Schilb, A (2014) Climate Change and Poverty – an Analytical Framework. Policy Research Working Papers. Washington DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Hallegatte, S, Bangalore, M, Bonzanigo, L, Fay, M, Kane, T, Narloch, U, Rozenberg, J, Treguer, D and Vogt-Schilb, A (2016) Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty. Climate Change and Development Series. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Hallegatte, S, Vogt-Schilb, A, Bangalore, M and Rozenberg, J (2017) Unbreakable: Building the Resilience of the Poor in the Face of Natural Disasters. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Hertel, TW and Rosch, SD (2010). Climate change, agriculture, and poverty. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 32(3), 355–385.Google Scholar
Hope, C (2006) The marginal impact of CO2 from PAGE2002: an integrated assessment model incorporating the IPCC's five reasons for concern. Integrated Assessment Journal 6(1), 19–56.Google Scholar
Hsiang, S, Kopp, R, Jina, A, Rising, J, Delgado, M, Mohan, S, Rasmussen, DJ, Muir-Wood, R, Wilson, P and Oppenheimer, M (2017) Estimating economic damage from climate change in the United States. Science 356, 1362–1369.Google Scholar
Hulme, D and Shepherd, A (2003) Conceptualizing chronic poverty. World Development 31, 403–423.Google Scholar
IPCC (2014) Climate change 2014: impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. In Field CB, Barros, VR, Dokken, DJ, Mach, KJ, Mastrandrea, MD, Bilir, TE, Chatterjee, M, Ebi, KL, Estrada, YO, Genova, RC, Girma, B, Kissel, ES, Levy, AN, MacCracken, S, Mastrandrea, PR and White, LL (eds). Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge, UK and New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1150.Google Scholar
Ivanic, M and Martin, W (2014) Short- and Long-run Impacts of Food Price Changes on Poverty. SSRN Scholarly Paper No. ID 2484229. Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacoby, HG, Rabassa, M and Skoufias, E (2014) Distributional implications of climate change in rural India: a general equilibrium approach. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 97(4), 1135–1156.Google Scholar
Jassogne, L, Lderach, P and van Asten, P (2013) The impact of climate change on coffee in Uganda: lessons from a case study in the Rwenzori mountains. Oxfam Policy and Practice: Climate Change and Resilience 9(1), 51–66.Google Scholar
Karim, A and Noy, I (2014) Poverty and Natural Disasters: A Meta-Analysis. SEF Working Paper Series 04/2014. Wellington: School of Economics and Finance, Victoria University of Wellington.Google Scholar
Krishna, A (2006) Pathways out of and into poverty in 36 villages of Andhra Pradesh, India. World Development Special Issue (Corruption and Development: Analysis and Measurement) 34(2), 271–288.Google Scholar
Mendelsohn, R, Morrison, W, Schlesinger, ME and Andronova, NG (2000) Country-specific market impacts of climate change. Climatic Change 45, 553–569.Google Scholar
Mendelsohn, R, Dinar, A and Williams, L (2006) The distributional impact of climate change on rich and poor countries. Environment and Development Economics 11, 159–178.Google Scholar
Moser, C (ed) (2008) Reducing Global Poverty: The Case for Asset Accumulation. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Narloch, U and Bangalore, M (2018) The multifaceted relationship between environmental risks and poverty: new insights from Vietnam. Environment and Development Economics 23(3).Google Scholar
Ndiaye, M, Maître d'Hôtel, E and Le Cotty, T (2015) Maize Price Volatility: Does Market Remoteness Matter? Policy Research Working Paper No. 7202. Washington, DC: The World Bank.Google Scholar
Nordhaus, W (2014) Estimates of the social cost of carbon: concepts and results from the DICE-2013R model and alternative approaches. Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 1, 273–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noy, I and Patel, P (2014) Floods and Spillovers: Households After the 2011 Great Flood in Thailand. Working Paper Series No. 3609. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.Google Scholar
Park, J, Bangalore, M, Hallegatte, S and Sandhoefner, E (2018) Households and heat stress: estimating the distributional consequences of climate change. Environment and Development Economics 23(3).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patankar, A (2015) The Exposure, Vulnerability and Adaptive Capacity of Households to Floods in Mumbai. Policy Research Working Paper No. 7481. Washington, DC: The World Bank.Google Scholar
Patankar, A and Patwardhan, A (2016) Estimating the uninsured losses due to extreme weather events and implications for informal sector vulnerability: a case study of Mumbai, India. Natural Hazards 80(1), 285–310.Google Scholar
Quisumbing, AR (2007) Poverty Transitions, Shocks, and Consumption in Rural Bangladesh: Preliminary Results From A Longitudinal Household Survey. CPRC Working Paper 105, Manchester: IDPM/Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC), UK.Google Scholar
Rabbani, G, Rahman, SH and Faulkner, L (2013) Impacts of climatic hazards on the small wetland ecosystems (ponds): evidence from some selected areas of coastal Bangladesh. Sustainability 5, 1510–1521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ravallion, M (2014) Are the World's Poorest Being Left Behind? NBER Working Paper No. 20791. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.Google Scholar
Rodriguez-Oreggia, E, De, La Fuente, A, De, La Torre, R and Moreno, HA (2013) Natural disasters, human development and poverty at the municipal level in Mexico. Journal of Development Studies 49, 442–455.Google Scholar
Sen, B (2003) Drivers of escape and descent: changing household fortunes in rural Bangladesh. World Development (special issue on Chronic Poverty and Development Policy) 31, 513–534.Google Scholar
Stern, N (2006) Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tol, RS (2002) Estimates of the damage costs of climate change. Part 1: benchmark estimates. Environmental and Resource Economics 21(1), 47–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tol, RS (2009) The economic effects of climate change. Journal of Economic Perspectives 23, 29–51.Google Scholar
Tschakert, P (2015) The ability of the poor to cope. Forthcoming as a World Bank Policy Research Working Paper.Google Scholar
WHO (2008) The World Health Report 2008 – Primary Health Care (Now More Than Ever). Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization. Available at http://www.who.int/whr/2008/en/.Google Scholar
Winsemius, HC, Jongman, B, Veldkamp, TIE, Hallegatte, S, Bangalore, M and Ward, PJ (2018) Disaster risk, climate change, and poverty: assessing the global exposure of poor people to floods and droughts. Environment and Development Economics 23(3). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355770X17000444.Google Scholar
World Bank (2015) ASPIRE (Atlas of Social Protection Indicators of Resilience and Equity) Database. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Wunder, S, Noack, F and Angelsen, A (2018) Climate, crops, and forests: a pan-tropical analysis of household income generation. Environment and Development Economics 23(3).Google Scholar