1364. 2025 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index - Overlapping Hardships: Poverty and Climate Disasters

The climate crisis is fundamentally transforming global poverty. More people than ever before are at risk of poverty and less likely to escape it. Inequality is worsening, and prospects for sustainable development are declining.

The 2025 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report combines data on climate hazards and multidimensional poverty to assess the poor's exposure to environmental shocks.

In 2022 alone, climate-related disasters forced approximately 32 million people from their homes and communities. Poverty, once considered primarily a separate socioeconomic concern, is now inextricably linked to global pressures. Without aggressive efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change, the number of people living in extreme economic poverty could nearly double by 2050.

Poverty and climate shocks create a double burden. Poverty drives exposure to climate hazards, which in turn exacerbate and prolong poverty. This interconnectedness is a hallmark of the Anthropocene, a time when human activities are fundamentally transforming Earth's systems, and environmental and social problems can only be solved together.

Research has shown that most poor people are exposed to at least one climate hazard, and that many, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, face multiple hazards simultaneously. The intertwining of climate and poverty risks is likely to become even more severe in the future. By the end of this century, the countries expected to experience the greatest temperature increases are those already experiencing high levels of multidimensional poverty.

The report strongly emphasizes the need to address this potentially worsening double burden.

(Reference)
UNDP. 2025 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI): Overlapping Hardships: Poverty and Climate Hazards. New York.
https://hdr.undp.org/content/2025-global-multidimensional-poverty-index…

Contributor: IIYAMA Miyuki, Information Program