The United Nations warned Friday that about 900 million people worldwide are directly exposed to climate change hazards exacerbated by global warming causing them doubled burdens.
Haoliang Xu, acting administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, said “No one is immune to the increasingly frequent and stronger climate change effects like droughts, floods, heat waves, and air pollution”, but warned that the poorest people in the world are “facing the harshest impact.”
He called on the world leaders of the upcoming COP30 UN climate summit in Brazil in November, to consider “climate action as action against poverty.”
According to the annual Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), the increasing frequency of extreme weather events threatens development progress.
It emphasizes that “priority must be given to both people and the planet, and that we must move above all from mere description to rapid action.”
