A/HRC/41/39 and Latin America alone. 24 Flooding and landslides can weaken already degraded infrastructure and housing, especially for people living in unplanned or unserviced settlements.25 In 2017, 18.8 million people were displaced due to disasters in 135 countries – almost twice the number displaced by conflict. 26 Since 2000, people in poor countries have died from disasters at rates seven times higher than in wealthy countries. 27 In addition, the authorities have a history of prioritizing wealthier areas for protection, further endangering people in poverty.28 B. Poverty 11. Climate change will exacerbate existing poverty and inequality. 29 It will have the most severe impact in poor countries and regions, and the places where poor people live and work. Developing countries will bear an estimated 75–80 per cent of the cost of climate change.30 12. People in poverty tend to live in areas more susceptible to climate change and in housing that is less resistant; lose relatively more when affected; have fewer resources to mitigate the effects; and get less support from social safety nets or the financial system to prevent or recover from the impact. Their livelihoods and assets are more exposed 31 and they are more vulnerable to natural disasters that bring disease, crop failure, spikes in food prices and death or disability. 32 13. Climate change threatens to undo the last 50 years of progress in development, global health 33 and poverty reduction. 34 Middle-class families, including in developed countries, are also being rendered poor. 35 The World Bank estimates that without immediate action, climate change could push 120 million more people into poverty by 2030, likely an underestimate, and rising in subsequent years. 36 In South Asia alone, 800 million people live in climate hotspots and will see their living conditions decline sharply by 2050.37 C. Inequality 14. Perversely, the richest people, who have the greatest capacity to adapt and are responsible for and have benefited from the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions, will be the best placed to cope with climate change, while the poorest, who have contributed the least to emissions and have the least capacity to react, will be the most harmed. The poorest half of the world’s population – 3.5 billion people – is responsible for just 10 per cent of 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 4 See World Bank, Groundswell: Preparing for Internal Climate Migration (2018). See David Wallace-Wells, The Uninhabitable Earth, p. 24. See Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and Norwegian Refugee Council, Global Report on Internal Displacement (2018), pp. v and 2. See Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters and United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, “Economic losses, poverty & disasters 1998–2017”, p. 3. UNEP and Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia University, “Climate change and human rights” (2015). See Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Special Report: Global Warming of 1.5ºC, p. 451. See World Bank, World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change, p. xx. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World: Building Climate Resilience for Food Security and Nutrition (2018), p. xiv. See World Bank, Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty, pp. 1–2 and 4. See Nick Watts and others, “Health and climate change: policy responses to protect public health”, The Lancet, vol. 386, No. 1006 (November 2015). See World Bank, Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty. See Erin McCormick, “Claws out: crab fishermen sue 30 oil firms over climate change”, The Guardian, 4 November 2018. See World Bank, Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty, p. 12. See World Bank, South Asia’s Hotspots: Impacts of Temperature and Precipitation Changes on Living Standards, (2018).