Across the globe, the impact of climate change is now increasingly present in people's lives: The World Bank's latest Findex Database reveals that one in three adults in low-income countries personally suffered a climate shock in the last three years.
For vulnerable communities in Africa, as elsewhere, the financial consequences of this can be devastating. In low-income economies, two thirds of people hit by such a shock lost income as a result and nearly three in four suffered loss of, or damage to, assets like homes or livestock nearly half of them experienced both types of loss.
These challenges are particularly pronounced in Sub-Saharan Africa, where income loss and asset damage or loss as a share of exposed adults was higher than the average. Impacts are also higher for the already vulnerable, including those living in poverty: people at the lower end of the income distribution were one third more likely to experience a climate shock than others.
