Publication:
Climate Change and Poverty : An Integrated Strategy for Adaptation

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (384.57 KB)
568 downloads
English Text (21.02 KB)
49 downloads
Published
2008-07
ISSN
Date
2012-08-13
Author(s)
Hull, Catherine
Hennet, Christel
Van der Vink, Gregory
Editor(s)
Abstract
Developing countries are most exposed to the impact of climate change and within these countries, the poor face the brunt of the burden. Climate change is not a discrete problem that can be dealt with through isolated reforms: impacting economic growth, health, and institutional capacity, it represents a full-frontal challenge to development. This note traces the multi-dimensional impacts of climate change, particularly on the poor, and proposes a three pronged integrated response to promote adaptation and help poor households cope with related risks.
Link to Data Set
Citation
Hull, Catherine; Cord, Louise; Hennet, Christel; Van der Vink, Gregory. 2008. Climate Change and Poverty : An Integrated Strategy for Adaptation. PREM Notes; No. 3. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11148 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Climate Change, Growth, and Poverty
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-07) Hull, Katy
    Equity emerged as the principal theme during the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) week session 'climate change, growth and poverty,' where presenters addressed the distributional consequences of climate change, as well as countries' unequal capacity to cope with the twin challenges of adaptation and mitigation. They highlighted actions to strengthen the global knowledge base, bolster domestic institutions, and mobilize innovative sources of financing as immediate priorities for the World Bank and its partners.
  • Publication
    Rural Households in a Changing Climate
    (2013-01) Baez, Javier E.; Kronick, Dorothy; Mason, Andrew D.
    This paper argues that climate change poses two distinct, if related, sets of challenges for poor rural households: challenges related to the increasing frequency and severity of weather shocks and challenges related to long-term shifts in temperature, rainfall patterns, water availability, and other environmental factors. Within this framework, the paper examines evidence from existing empirical literature to compose an initial picture of household-level strategies for adapting to climate change in rural settings. The authors find that although households possess numerous strategies for managing climate shocks and shifts, their adaptive capacity is insufficient for the task of maintaining -- let alone improving -- household welfare. They describe the role of public policy in fortifying the ability of rural households to adapt to a changing climate.
  • Publication
    Mainstreaming Climate Adaptation into Development Assistance in Mozambique : Institutional Barriers and Opportunities
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-09) Sietz, Diana; Boschütz, Maria; Klein, Richard J.T.; Lotsch, Alexander
    Based on a literature review and expert interviews, this paper analyzes the most important climate impacts on development goals and explores relevant institutions in the context of mainstreaming climate adaptation into development assistance in Mozambique. Climate variability and change can significantly hinder progress toward attaining the Millennium Development Goals and poverty aggravates the country's climate vulnerability. Because Mozambique is one of the major recipients of official development assistance in the world, there is a clear interest in ensuring that the risks of climate impacts are incorporated into the country's development investments. A screening of donor activities at the sub-national level shows that a high share of development assistance is invested in climate-sensitive sectors, partly in areas that are particularly exposed to droughts, floods, and cyclones. The authors find that Mozambique has a supportive legislative environment and donors have a high awareness of climate risks. However, limited individual, organizational, networking, and financial capacity constrain mainstreaming initiatives. Given strong limitations at the national level, bilateral and multilateral donors can play a key role in fostering institutional capacity in Mozambique.
  • Publication
    The Impacts of Climate Variability on Welfare in Rural Mexico
    (2011-02-01) Vinha, Katja; Skoufias, Emmanuel; Conroy, Hector V.
    This paper examines the impacts of weather shocks, defined as rainfall or growing degree days more than a standard deviation from their respective long-run means, on household consumption per capita and child height-for-age. The results reveal that the current risk-coping mechanisms are not effective in protecting these two dimensions of welfare from erratic weather patterns. These findings imply that the change in the patterns of climatic variability associated with climate change is likely to reduce the effectiveness of the current coping mechanisms even more and thus increase household vulnerability further. The results reveal that weather shocks have substantial (negative as well as positive) effects on welfare that vary across regions (North vs. Center and South) and socio-economic characteristics (education and gender). The heterogeneous impacts of climatic variability suggest that a "tailored" approach to designing programs aimed at decreasing the sensitivity and increasing the capacity of rural households to adapt to climate change in Mexico is likely to be more effective.
  • Publication
    Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change : Vietnam
    (Washington, DC, 2010) World Bank
    This report provides a synthesis of key findings of sector studies undertaken in Vietnam in the context of the EACC study. The sector studies were on agriculture (Zhu & Guo 2010), a separate computable general equilibrium [CGE] analysisbased on agriculture findings (Adams et al. 2010), aquaculture (Kam et al. 2010), forestry (Phuong). At the global level, the EACC study estimates that it will costbetween $70 and $100 billion each year to adapt to climate change over the period 2010 to 2050. The study was funded by the governments of the UnitedKingdom, Netherlands, and Switzerland. Further details may be found at: www.worldbank.org/eacc. In addition, the synthesis report from Vietnam and the six underlying national sector reports can be downloaded from the Environment site of the World Bank s web site for Vietnam: www.worldbank.org/vn/environment.et al. 2010, Almeida et al. 2010), social (McElwee et al. 2010), and coastal ports (VIMARU 2010). Further details can be found in the individual sector reports prepared by teams of national and international experts.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Economic Effects of the Syrian War and the Spread of the Islamic State on the Levant
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-12) Ivanic, Maros; Ianchovichina, Elena
    This paper uses a global computable general-equilibrium framework with new detail on six Levant countries -- the Arab Republic of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, and Turkey -- to quantify the direct and indirect economic effects of the Syrian war and the advance of the Islamic State on the Levant. Syria and Iraq bear the brunt of the direct economic costs, while the other Levant countries lose in per capita but not in aggregate terms. The fact that the Islamic State's spread has undermined regional trade adds to varying degrees to the direct costs in all Levant economies and in the case of Syria and Iraq doubles the welfare losses. All these countries are foregoing opportunities to expand intra-Levant trade and the associated gains in economic efficiency and diversification. The average welfare effects are not indicative of within-country incidence, which varies among workers, landowners, and capitalists.
  • Publication
    How Does the Internet Affect Migration Decisions?
    (Taylor and Francis, 2016-12-09) Winkler, Hernan
    This article provides new evidence on the impact of the internet on migration decisions. I find that an increase in internet adoption among migrant-sending countries reduces the stock of migrants from these locations. The results are robust to a number of specifications, including an instrumental variable approach that addresses the endogeneity of internet adoption. The findings suggest that the internet may weaken the importance of push factors in the decision to migrate, and that these effects outweigh declines in mobility costs.
  • Publication
    Protecting People and Economies
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-05) World Bank
    The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed a global health emergency and an unprecedented economic crisis of historic magnitude. Governments facing this threat are in uncharted territory, but three policy priorities addressed in this note are clear. Disease containment is a first-order concern to combat the pandemic, and measures such as testing and tracing, coupled with isolating and treating the infected can bring first-order gains. The economic crisis requires a parallel and simultaneous effort to save jobs, protect income, and ensure access to services for vulnerable populations. As governments act to slow the pandemic and protect lives and livelihoods now, they will need to maintain macro stability, continue to build trust, and communicate clearly to avoid deeper downturns and social unrest. Looking forward, this crisis can be an opportunity to rethink policy to build back with stronger systems for people and economies.
  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.
  • Publication
    Fertility Following Natural Disasters and Epidemics in Africa
    (Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2022-08-08) Norling, Johannes
    This paper uses dozens of large-scale household surveys to measure average changes in fertility following hundreds of droughts, floods, earthquakes, tropical cyclones, other storms, and epidemics in Africa between 1980 and 2016. Droughts are the largest and longest-lasting type of disaster on average, and fertility decreases by between 3.5 and 6.8 percent in the five years after droughts. Fertility changes are smaller or less clear after other types of disasters. Comparisons between countries, rather than within countries, drive these findings. There is substantial geographic heterogeneity in the direction and magnitude of the changes in fertility after disasters, driven by characteristics of the disasters and survey respondents. Fertility decreases especially after more recent droughts and in areas prone to drought. Fertility also decreases after longer floods. Fertility decreases after epidemics for women near the start and end of their childbearing careers, but increases for women in their late twenties and early thirties.