Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change
Climate Shocks and the Poor: A Review of the Literature
2026-02-09
There is a rapidly growing literature on the link between climate change and poverty. This study reviews the existing literature on whether the poor are more exposed to climate shocks and whether they are more adversely affected. We find that 67% of our analyzed samples show that the poor are more exposed to climate shocks than the rest of the population, and 88% find that the poor are more adversely affected by climate shocks than the rest of the population. Income and human capital losses tend to be concentrated among the poor. These results are similar at the global and low‐ and middle‐income settings. These findings highlight the potential long‐term risk of a climate change‐induced poverty trap and the need for targeted interventions to protect the poor from the adverse effects of climate shocks. This article is categorized under: Climate Economics > Economics and Climate Change