Nearly 80 percent of the world’s poor—approximately 900 million people—are directly exposed to escalating climate risks, including heat waves, droughts, floods, and air pollution, according to a new United Nations report. The findings highlight the disproportionate impact of global warming on the most vulnerable populations.
UNDP Acting Administrator Haoling Xu emphasized the urgency of linking climate action with poverty reduction. “No one is immune to the increasingly severe and recurring impacts of climate change, but the poorest among us are the most affected,” Xu said, calling on world leaders to recognize climate action as a direct measure against poverty ahead of the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) in Brazil this November.
The 2024 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), analyzed data from 109 countries covering 6.3 billion people.
It revealed that 1.1 billion people are living in severe multidimensional poverty, with half of them being children. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia remain the most affected regions, home to 565 million and 390 million people living in poverty, respectively. Both regions are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
The report also found that 651 million people are exposed to at least two climate hazards, 309 million to three or four risks, and 11 million people experienced all four major risks—extreme heat, drought, floods, and pollution—within a single year. Extreme heat alone threatens 608 million poor people worldwide.
Researchers stressed that the convergence of poverty and climate risks is a global challenge requiring urgent action. The study calls for integrated solutions that combine poverty alleviation, emission reduction, climate adaptation, and ecosystem restoration. Without such efforts, gains made in development and poverty reduction are at risk.
“The world’s poorest countries today are projected to be the hardest hit by rising temperatures,” the report warns, adding that coordinated global efforts must prioritize both people and the planet to build resilient societies and ensure that no one is left behind.
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