The Poverty Impacts of Climate Change : A Review of the Evidence

Climate change is believed to represent a serious challenge to poverty reduction efforts around the globe. This paper conducts an up-to-date review of three main strands of the literature analyzing the poverty impacts of climate change : (i) econom...

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Main Authors: Skoufias, Emmanuel, Rabassa, Mariano, Olivieri, Sergio
Format: Policy Research Working Paper
Language:English
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20110404100435
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3389
id okr-10986-3389
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-33892021-04-23T14:02:09Z The Poverty Impacts of Climate Change : A Review of the Evidence Skoufias, Emmanuel Rabassa, Mariano Olivieri, Sergio ADAPTATION AGRICULTURE SECTOR CLIMATE CHANGE ECONOMIC GROWTH POVERTY IMPACTS POVERTY PREDICTORS POVERTY REDUCTION WELFARE Climate change is believed to represent a serious challenge to poverty reduction efforts around the globe. This paper conducts an up-to-date review of three main strands of the literature analyzing the poverty impacts of climate change : (i) economy-wide growth models incorporating climate change impacts to work out consistent scenarios for how climate change might affect the path of poverty over the next decades; (ii) studies focusing on the poverty impacts of climate change in the agricultural sector; and (iii) studies exploring how past climate variability impacts poverty. The analysis finds that the majority of the estimates of the poverty impacts tend to ignore the effect of aggregate economic growth on poverty and household welfare. The empirical evidence available to date suggests that climate change will slow the pace of global poverty reduction, but the expected poverty impact will be relatively modest and far from reversing the major decline in poverty that is expected to occur over the next 40 years as a result of continued economic growth. The studies focusing on the sector-specific channels of impacts of climate change suggest that the estimated impacts of climate change on agricultural yields are generally a poor predictor of the poverty impacts of climate change at the national level due to heterogeneity in the ability of households to adapt. It also appears that the impacts of climate change are generally regressive, that is, they fall more heavily on the poor than the rich. 2012-03-19T18:01:36Z 2012-03-19T18:01:36Z 2011-04-01 http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20110404100435 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3389 English Policy Research working paper ; no. WPS 5622 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper The World Region The World Region
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic ADAPTATION
AGRICULTURE SECTOR
CLIMATE CHANGE
ECONOMIC GROWTH
POVERTY IMPACTS
POVERTY PREDICTORS
POVERTY REDUCTION
WELFARE
spellingShingle ADAPTATION
AGRICULTURE SECTOR
CLIMATE CHANGE
ECONOMIC GROWTH
POVERTY IMPACTS
POVERTY PREDICTORS
POVERTY REDUCTION
WELFARE
Skoufias, Emmanuel
Rabassa, Mariano
Olivieri, Sergio
The Poverty Impacts of Climate Change : A Review of the Evidence
geographic_facet The World Region
The World Region
relation Policy Research working paper ; no. WPS 5622
description Climate change is believed to represent a serious challenge to poverty reduction efforts around the globe. This paper conducts an up-to-date review of three main strands of the literature analyzing the poverty impacts of climate change : (i) economy-wide growth models incorporating climate change impacts to work out consistent scenarios for how climate change might affect the path of poverty over the next decades; (ii) studies focusing on the poverty impacts of climate change in the agricultural sector; and (iii) studies exploring how past climate variability impacts poverty. The analysis finds that the majority of the estimates of the poverty impacts tend to ignore the effect of aggregate economic growth on poverty and household welfare. The empirical evidence available to date suggests that climate change will slow the pace of global poverty reduction, but the expected poverty impact will be relatively modest and far from reversing the major decline in poverty that is expected to occur over the next 40 years as a result of continued economic growth. The studies focusing on the sector-specific channels of impacts of climate change suggest that the estimated impacts of climate change on agricultural yields are generally a poor predictor of the poverty impacts of climate change at the national level due to heterogeneity in the ability of households to adapt. It also appears that the impacts of climate change are generally regressive, that is, they fall more heavily on the poor than the rich.
format Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
author Skoufias, Emmanuel
Rabassa, Mariano
Olivieri, Sergio
author_facet Skoufias, Emmanuel
Rabassa, Mariano
Olivieri, Sergio
author_sort Skoufias, Emmanuel
title The Poverty Impacts of Climate Change : A Review of the Evidence
title_short The Poverty Impacts of Climate Change : A Review of the Evidence
title_full The Poverty Impacts of Climate Change : A Review of the Evidence
title_fullStr The Poverty Impacts of Climate Change : A Review of the Evidence
title_full_unstemmed The Poverty Impacts of Climate Change : A Review of the Evidence
title_sort poverty impacts of climate change : a review of the evidence
publishDate 2012
url http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20110404100435
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3389
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