An additional 100-million people could be pushed into extreme poverty by 2030, as climate-related shocks and stresses, already a major obstacle to poverty reduction, worsen, a new World Bank report warns.

The report, titled ‘Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty’ found that poor people were disproportionately affected by climate change not only because they were often more exposed and invariably more vulnerable to climate-related shocks – such as crop failures from reduced rainfall, spikes in food prices after extreme weather events and increased incidence of diseases after heatwaves and floods – but also because they had fewer resources and received less support from family, community, the financial system and even social safety nets to prevent, cope and adapt.

The World Bank added that these shocks could wipe out hard-won gains, leading to irreversible losses, driving people back into poverty, particularly in Africa and South Asia.

"This report sends a clear message that ending poverty will not be possible unless we take strong action to reduce the threat of climate change on poor people and dramatically reduce harmful emissions," said World Bank president Jim Yong Kim.

“Between now and 2030, climate policies can do little to alter the global warming that will take place. The only option, therefore, is to reduce vulnerability through both targeted adaptation investments and improved socioeconomic conditions, which will result in higher incomes and lower poverty and inequality,” the report stated.

The report highlighted that rapid and inclusive development could prevent most of the impact of climate change on poverty, but only if new investments and developments were climate-informed and designed to perform well under changing climate conditions, while avoiding new vulnerabilities to climate impacts.

CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE
The report suggested that climate-smart agricultural practices could increase productivity and resilience, but noted that this required a major shift in the way land, water, soil nutrients and genetic resources were managed to ensure resources were used more efficiently.

Modelling studies indicated that climate change could result in global crop yield losses of as much as 5% by 2030 and 30% by 2080. The impact of climate change on food prices in Africa could become as high as 12% in 2030 – not good news in a region where food consumption of the poorest households amounted to over 60% of total household spending.

“Crop improvement, smarter use of inputs, approaches to strengthen crop resistance to pests and diseases, and the reduction of post-harvest losses can contribute to the sustainable intensification of agriculture, thereby leading to greater food production.

“For this to happen, innovation is needed to keep increasing yields and the new techniques that result from innovation must actually be broadly adopted, including by poor farmers,” the report pointed out.

LAND USE REGULATIONS
Through land use regulations, new development could occur in places that were safe, or easy and cheap to protect using hard or soft infrastructure, but effective implementation of such regulations remained challenging.

“Poor people lack the type of protective infrastructure that is common in richer countries. For instance, poor households are often exposed to recurrent floods due to the lack, or poor maintenance, of infrastructure.

“Even if these events do not attract media and policymaker attention, they can represent a large burden on poor people. Solving these problems requires investing more and investing better,” the report asserted.

BETTER HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE
Poor people in low- and lower-to-middle-income countries have limited access to healthcare and face out-of-pocket expenditure exceeding 50% of health expenses, much higher than the less than 15% that was common in rich countries.

“Countries should have strong monitoring and surveillance systems able to detect new health issues that will periodically arise in response to changing climate conditions. They also need research and development on the diseases that affect poor people and that are expected to increase with climate change.

“There are many options to make climate policies pro-poor, such as introducing a carbon or energy tax and recycling those revenues through a universal cash transfer that would benefit the poor.

“An analysis of 20 developing countries shows that for each $100 of additional energy tax collected and redistributed, the bottom quintile gains $13, while the richest quintile loses $23 and, overall, the bottom 60% would benefit from the measure,” the report recommended.