Overlapping Hardships: Poverty and Climate Hazards

The recent Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2025 Overlapping Hardships: Poverty and Climate Hazards from the United Nations Development Programme and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative issues a clear warning: the global fight against poverty can no longer be separated from the fight against climate change. The report finds that 1.1 billion people, nearly one in five worldwide, live in acute multidimensional poverty, lacking essentials such as health, education, and adequate living conditions. Crucially, 80% of these people also face at least one of the four major climate hazards: high heat, drought, floods, or air pollution.

Key findings from the report: 

• Around 27.8 percent of all children live in multidimensional poverty, more than double the rate among adults (13.5 percent). These 586 million children account for more than half of the 1.1 billion people living in multidimensional poverty.
• Nearly two thirds of all poor people—about 740 million or 64.5 percent— live in middle-income countries. Most of them, around 637 million (55.5 percent), reside in lower-middle-income countries, while about 103 million (9 percent) live in upper-middle-income countries.
• About 83.2 percent of poor people live in two regions: sub-Saharan Africa (565 million) and South Asia (390 million).
• Most multidimensionally poor people lack clean cooking fuel (970 million), adequate housing (878 million) and adequate sanitation (830 million).
• Around 635 million poor people live in households where at least one person is undernourished.
• Around 581 million poor people live in households where no one has completed six years of schooling; 487 million are in households where one or more children are out of school.
• Many poor people face overlapping climate hazards: 651 million face two or more hazards and 309 million people three or four.
• Upper-middle-income countries have fewer poor people in absolute terms. But their exposure to climate hazards is disproportionately high—91.1 percent of poor people (93 million) in these countries face at least one climate hazard. In low-income countries, the share is 61.3 percent (246 million).

The 2025 Multidimensional Poverty Index reminds us that the Sustainable Development Goals are deeply interconnected. Poverty cannot be eradicated without addressing inequality, education, health, and the growing pressures of climate change. Progress on one goal depends on progress across all. Advancing them together, rather than in silos, is the only way to achieve real, lasting development for both people and planet.

As global inequalities deepen and climate hazards intensify, responses must be integrated, inclusive, and justice-driven. This means investing in resilient livelihoods, adaptive social protection, and climate-smart development that centers the voices of those most affected.