Climate Change Disproportionately Impacts Rural Women, Poor, Elders: FAO

Female farmers, poor people, and older populations are the most affected by climate change, and their needs require targeted measures, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) highlighted in a report published on Tuesday.

The study, titled "Unjust Climate," reveals that certain social groups are disproportionately affected by climate-related income disparities due to unequal capacities to adapt to extreme weather. Conducted over two years by a team of eight experts and various consultants, the report collected socio-economic data from 109,000 rural households in 24 low and middle-income countries, representing over 950 million people.

According to the study, if average temperatures were to increase by just 1 degree Celsius, rural women would face a 34 percent greater loss in their total incomes compared to men.

As for poor households, rising temperature renders them more dependent on climate-sensitive agriculture, and with floods, they would lose 4.4 percent of their total compared to non-poor households on average.

The findings, categorized by gender, wealth and age, aim to guide countries in developing tailored responses to address the diverse needs of affected groups.

"Our hope is that we will start taking into more consideration the differences in the vulnerability of people, because vulnerabilities are not the same for all, and they need different types of support," FAO senior economist and report's lead author Nicholas Sitko told Xinhua.