United Nations Alert
Almost eight in every 10 poor people around the world, or around 900 million people, are directly exposed to climate risks worsened by global warming, the UN warned this Friday, highlighting this “double burden”.
The conclusion is highlighted in the report “Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (IPM) 2025”, released by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Poverty and Humanity Initiative (OPHI), from the University of Oxford.
The document’s authors highlighted that the climate crisis is reshaping global poverty, with the two most affected regions being sub-Saharan Africa (565 million poor people) and South Asia (390 million), both highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change such as extreme heat, floods, droughts or air pollution.
“No one is exempt from the increasingly severe and frequent impacts of climate change (…), but the poorest are the most affected”, warned UNDP Deputy Secretary-General Xu Haoliang.
“This report shows where the climate crisis and poverty are most converging. Understanding where the planet is under the most pressure and where people face additional burdens created by climate challenges is essential for creating mutually reinforcing development strategies that put humanity at the center of climate action,” said report co-author Sabina Alkire.
The index, which covers indicators such as malnutrition and child mortality, lack of adequate housing, sanitation systems, electricity and access to education, states that, last year, 1.1 billion people lived in multidimensional poverty, half of which were minors.
The report also found that, among this total, “651 million people were exposed to two or more climate risks”, while “309 million faced three or four risks simultaneously”.
Exposure to climate risks exacerbates the daily challenges faced by people living in poverty, reinforcing and deepening their disadvantages, researchers recalled.
By overlaying data on climate risks with data on multidimensional poverty, the results showed a world where poverty is not just an isolated socioeconomic issue, but a scenario deeply interconnected with planetary pressures and instabilities, they said.
“Our new research shows that, to combat global poverty and create a more stable world for everyone, we need to address climate risks that endanger nearly 900 million poor people,” said Xu Haoliang.
“When world leaders meet in Brazil next month for the Climate Conference (COP30), their national climate commitments should revitalize the stagnant development progress that threatens to leave the world’s poorest people behind,” he said.
A few weeks before COP30 in Brazil – which takes place in the Amazon, from 10 to 21 November –, the UNDP and OPHI wanted to highlight “the overlap” between this poverty and exposure to four environmental risks: extreme heat (at least 30 days above 35°C), drought, floods and air pollution (concentration of fine particles).
Individually, and according to this document, the most widespread risks affecting poor people around the world are intense heat (608 million people) and air pollution (577 million).
Flood-prone regions are home to 465 million poor people, while 207 million live in drought-affected areas.
UNDP and OPHI annually publish the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, which includes data from 109 countries, totaling 6.3 billion people.
