Politics
Nearly 900m poor people exposed to climate shocks, warns UN
Nearly 80% of the world’s poorest, or about 900 million people, are directly exposed to climate hazards exacerbated by global warming, bearing a “double and deeply unequal burden,” the United Nations warned Friday.
“No one is immune to the increasingly frequent and stronger climate change effects like droughts, floods, heat waves, and air pollution, but it’s the poorest among us who are facing the harshest impact,” Haoliang Xu, acting administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, told AFP in a statement.
COP30, the UN climate summit in Brazil in November, “is the moment for world leaders to look at climate action as action against poverty,” he added.
According to an annual study published by the UNDP together with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, 1.1 billion people, or about 18% of the 6.3 billion in 109 countries analysed, live in “acute multidimensional” poverty, based on factors like infant mortality and access to housing, sanitation, electricity, and education.
Half of those people are minors.
One example of such extreme deprivation cited in the report is the case of Ricardo, a member of the Guarani Indigenous community living outside Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia’s largest city.
Ricardo, who earns a meager income as a day labourer, shares his small single-family house with 18 other people, including his three children, parents, and other extended family.
The house has only one bathroom, a wood-and-coal-fired kitchen, and none of the children are in school.
“Their lives reflect the multidimensional realities of poverty,” the report said.
Prioritising ‘people and the planet’
Two regions particularly affected by such poverty are sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia — and they are also highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
The report highlights the connection between poverty and exposure to four environmental risks: extreme heat, drought, floods, and air pollution.
“Impoverished households are especially susceptible to climate shocks as many depend on highly vulnerable sectors such as agriculture and informal labor,” the report said.
“When hazards overlap or strike repeatedly, they compound existing deprivations.”
As a result, 887 million people, or nearly 79 percent of these poor populations, are directly exposed to at least one of these threats, with 608 million people suffering from extreme heat, 577 million affected by pollution, 465 million by floods, and 207 million by drought.
Roughly 651 million are exposed to at least two of the risks, 309 million to three or four risks, and 11 million poor people have already experienced all four in a single year.
“Concurrent poverty and climate hazards are clearly a global issue,” the report said.
And the increase in extreme weather events threatens development progress.
While South Asia has made progress in fighting poverty, 99.1 percent of its poor population is exposed to at least one climate hazard.
The region “must once again chart a new path forward, one that balances determined poverty reduction with innovative climate action,” the report says.
With Earth’s surface rapidly getting warmer, the situation is likely to worsen further, and experts warn that today’s poorest countries will be hardest hit by rising temperatures.
“Responding to overlapping risks requires prioritising both people and the planet, and above all, moving from recognition to rapid action,” the report said.
- Charter aims at ensuring democratic reform after next year’s elections.
- Reforms are needed to prevent return to authoritarian rule: Yunus.
- Interim leader declares charter rebirth of people of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh’s most powerful political parties signed a charter on Friday aimed at ensuring democratic reform after next year’s elections, following a mass uprising that toppled the previous government.
However, celebrations of the government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus were muted after one party refused to sign, with police also firing tear gas to quash rock-throwing protesters ahead of the ceremony.
Yunus, 85, has championed the document as his legacy, saying he inherited a “completely broken down” system and that reforms are needed to prevent a return to authoritarian rule.
“This is the moment we are ushering in a new Bangladesh,” Yunus told the ceremony, held in front of parliament in Dhaka. “We have been reborn.”
The South Asian nation of 170 million people has been in political turmoil since Sheikh Hasina was ousted as prime minister by a student-led revolt in August 2024.
The document, dubbed the “July Charter” after last year’s uprising, has sparked intense arguments between parties jostling for power ahead of polls slated for February.
Yunus, who has pledged to step down after elections, says it will strengthen checks and balances between the executive, judicial and legislative branches.
It includes proposals for a two-term limit for prime ministers and expanded presidential powers.
It also aims to enshrine the recognition of Bangladesh as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation.
Leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), seen as among the election front-runners, as well as Jamaat-e-Islami, the Muslim-majority nation’s largest Islamist party, signed the charter.
However, the National Citizen Party (NCP), made up of many students who spearheaded the uprising that ended Hasina’s rule, boycotted the ceremony.
Ahead of the ceremony, police and protesters clashed, including those who took part in demonstrations last year, demanding compensation for those who were injured.
“The bloodshed of martyrs is now forgotten,” said Khandakar Mashruk Sarkar, 48.
The charter was given a last-minute amendment to include monthly allowances for injured protesters.
The document is expected to be ratified either by a referendum or by the new parliament to be elected.
Mohammad Ibrahim Hossain, 25, an electrician, among the crowd watching the ceremony, was unclear about exactly what changes the charter would make.
“I don’t know what is in it, or what good it will bring for us,” he said. “I just don’t want to see people die anymore.”
Saudi Arabia is in discussions with the United States over a defence agreement that could be finalised during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s expected visit to the White House next month, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
A senior official from the Trump administration told the FT that there were “talks about signing something when the crown prince arrives, but the details are still being worked out.”
According to the report, the proposed deal would resemble the recent US-Qatar defence pact, under which Washington pledged to treat any armed attack on Qatar as a threat to the United States.
That agreement came shortly after Israel’s air strike on Doha last month, which targeted senior Hamas leaders.
The US State Department described defence cooperation with Saudi Arabia as a “strong bedrock of our regional strategy,” but declined to provide details about the possible agreement.
Neither the State Department, the White House, nor the Saudi government responded to Reuters’ request for comment on the FT report.
Last month, Saudi Arabia signed a mutual defence pact with Pakistan, deepening a decades-long security partnership between the two allies.
The pact, signed on September 17 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Riyadh, declared that “any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both.”
The agreement aimed to strengthen defence cooperation and bolster joint deterrence capabilities against potential threats.
Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump also pledged to view any armed attack on Qatar as a threat to US security a stance formalised in a recent defence document allowing American forces to defend the Gulf nation if needed.
Qatar welcomed Trump’s order, describing it as a milestone in strengthening defence ties and bilateral cooperation, its foreign ministry said.
The executive order, which appears to significantly deepen the US commitment to Qatar, comes after Israel last month attempted to kill leaders of Hamas with an airstrike on Doha.
That strike, launched with little advance notice to the Trump administration, caused consternation in Washington, given the close US relationship with Qatar, which hosts the largest US military base in the region.
“The United States shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States,” the order said.
“In the event of such an attack, the United States shall take all lawful and appropriate measures including diplomatic, economic and, if necessary, military — to defend the interests of the United States and of the State of Qatar and to restore peace and stability.”
The document said top US defence and intelligence officials will maintain contingency planning with Qatar to ensure a rapid response to any attacks.
- Crown Prince MBS to visit White House next month.
- Pact may resemble US–Qatar security agreement.
- State Department cites strong strategic cooperation.
Saudi Arabia is discussing a defence deal with the United States which it hopes to seal when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visits the White House next month, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
A senior Trump administration official told the Financial Times there were “discussions about signing something when the crown prince comes, but the details are in flux.”
The FT said the deal in discussion was similar to the recent US-Qatar pact that pledged to treat any armed attack on Qatar as a threat to the United States. The US deal with Qatar came after Israel last month attempted to kill leaders of Hamas with an air strike on Doha.
The US State Department told the FT that defence co-operation with the kingdom was a “strong bedrock of our regional strategy,” but declined to comment on details of the potential deal.
The US State Department, the White House and the Saudi government did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the FT report.
Last month, Saudi Arabia signed a mutual defence pact with nuclear-armed Pakistan.
Riyadh and Islamabad signed the mutual defence pact on September 17, significantly strengthening a decades-old security partnership, a week after Israel’s strikes on Qatar upended the diplomatic calculus in the region.
The agreement states that “any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both,” a statement from the prime minister’s office and the state-run Saudi Press Agency had mentioned.
“This agreement … aims to develop aspects of defence cooperation between the two countries and strengthen joint deterrence against any aggression,” the statement said.
The deal was signed by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Riyadh, where Pakistan’s top official was accorded a warm welcome.
Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump pledged to treat any armed attack on Qatar as a threat to the United States’ own security, according to a document that says US forces could step in to defend the Middle Eastern nation.
Qatar welcomed Trump’s order, describing it as a milestone in strengthening defence ties and bilateral cooperation, its foreign ministry said.
The executive order, which appears to significantly deepen the US commitment to Qatar, comes after Israel last month attempted to kill leaders of Hamas with an airstrike on Doha.
That strike, launched with little advance notice to the Trump administration, caused consternation in Washington, given the close US relationship with Qatar, which hosts the largest US military base in the region.
“The United States shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States,” the order said.
“In the event of such an attack, the United States shall take all lawful and appropriate measures — including diplomatic, economic and, if necessary, military — to defend the interests of the United States and of the State of Qatar and to restore peace and stability.”
The document said top US defence and intelligence officials will maintain contingency planning with Qatar to ensure a rapid response to any attacks.
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