As the smoke clears from the fireworks launched to celebrate the climate change treaty in Paris, the world is still left with its current 1 degree Celsius increase in global temperatures over pre-industrial levels. Weather patterns will continue to change in the coming decades, and the poor will remain the most vulnerable.
“Studies show that losses caused by weather-related natural catastrophes already account for up to 6 percent of the annual [gross national product] in some Caribbean countries,” according to the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative, a multistakeholder association. “This is likely to increase by as much as three percentage points by 2030.”
Looking at it from the household point of view, a World Bank study identified three ways that climate change is already hitting the poor: spikes in food prices, natural disasters, and disease and other health problems.