Impacts of Climate Change on Vulnerable Sections

Published on 06 Apr 2025

Climate change consequences disproportionately affect vulnerable populations such as low-income communities, indigenous peoples, women, children, and those living in developing countries.

• Vector-Borne Diseases: Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns have the potential to impact the distribution of disease vectors, hence increasing the risk of diseases like dengue, malaria, and Lyme disease, particularly for vulnerable people.

• Example: Climate change aided malaria expansion into highland east Africa and towards the Cape in 100 years

• Acute food insecurity: Floods and locust outbreak in east African region led to increased food shortages.

• Example: In Somalia 546,000 affected, including nearly 217,000 displaced by flooding.

• Climate gender nexus: According to the United Nations, women make up 80% of the people displaced by climate change, they are also at a greater risk of sexual violence and more likely to die from natural disasters than men.

• Climate change impact on Children: Nearly 710 million children are currently living in countries at the highest risk of suffering the impact of the climate crisis.

• Example: About half of the world’s children (953 million) were exposed to high or extremely high-water stress in 2022, according to a new UNICEF report

• Climate change impact on Indigenous communities: Climate change exacerbates the difficulties already faced by indigenous communities including political and economic marginalization, loss of land and resources, etc.

• Example: Indigenous peoples in Africa’s Kalahari Desert are forced to live around government drilled bores for water and depend on government support for their survival due to rising temperatures, dune expansion.

• Climate change impact on Small Island Developing Countries: SIDS are increasingly affected by tropical cyclones, storm surges, droughts, changing precipitation patterns, coral bleaching and invasive species.

• Example: Tuvalu is a nation of nine coral islands nestled in the South Pacific. It has been defined by the UN as "extremely vulnerable" to the effects of climate change.

Case study

Solar Mamas, Rajasthan: Barefoot College in Rajasthan trains women to fabricate solar panels, lights and photovoltaic circuits.

Tags:
Environment

Keywords:
Climate change Small islands Vulnerable people

Syllabus:
General Studies Paper 3

Topics:
Environment and Climate Change