Measuring the impacts of climate change on rural poor, women and youth Measuring the impacts of climate change on rural poor, women and youth Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, 2024 Required citation: FAO. 2024. The unjust climate – Measuring the impacts of climate change on rural poor, women and youth. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cc9680en The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Dashed lines on maps represent approximate border lines for which there may not yet be full agreement. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. ISBN 978-92-5-138590-6 © FAO, 2024 Some rights reserved. This work is made available under the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercialShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-ncsa/3.0/igo/legalcode). Under the terms of this licence, this work may be copied, redistributed and adapted for non-commercial purposes, provided that the work is appropriately cited. In any use of this work, there should be no suggestion that FAO endorses any specific organization, products or services. The use of the FAO logo is not permitted. If the work is adapted, then it must be licensed under the same or equivalent Creative Commons licence. If a translation of this work is created, it must include the following disclaimer along with the required citation: “This translation was not created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FAO is not responsible for the content or accuracy of this translation. The original [Language] edition shall be the authoritative edition.” Disputes arising under the licence that cannot be settled amicably will be resolved by mediation and arbitration as described in Article 8 of the licence except as otherwise provided herein. The applicable mediation rules will be the mediation rules of the World Intellectual Property Organization http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/mediation/rules and any arbitration will be conducted in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). Third-party materials. Users wishing to reuse material from this work that is attributed to a third party, such as tables, figures or images, are responsible for determining whether permission is needed for that reuse and for obtaining permission from the copyright holder. The risk of claims resulting from infringement of any third-party owned component in the work rests solely with the user. Sales, rights and licensing. FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be purchased through publications-sales@fao.org. Requests for commercial use should be submitted via: www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request. Queries regarding rights and licensing should be submitted to: copyright@fao.org. Front and Back Cover Photograph: © FAO/Fahad Kaizer iii Contents FOREWORDviii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSx ABBREVIATIONS xi EXECUTIVE SUMMARYxiii PART I. CLIMATE VULNERABILITY IN RURAL AREAS: EVIDENCE ON THE ROLE OF WEALTH, GENDER AND AGE 1 1. INTRODUCTION 3 2. 3. 4. 5. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: UNDERSTANDING HOW CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECTS RURAL PEOPLE 7 What is climate vulnerability? 9 WEALTH-RELATED DISPARITIES IN CLIMATE VULNERABILITY15 Extreme weather events cause considerable income losses for the rural poor 17 Extreme weather events push poor rural households to adopt maladaptive coping strategies 18 Poor rural households become more reliant on agriculture as long-term temperatures increase 19 GENDER DISPARITIES IN CLIMATE VULNERABILITY23 Extreme weather events reduce the incomes of female-headed households significantly more than those of male-headed households 25 Female-headed households cope with extreme weather events in various ways 27 Female plot managers are as capable as male plot managers to adopt adaptive agricultural practices, but lose more as a result