The climate change crisis affects all of us—across every community and every continent, but it is the poorest among us—those who are least responsible for the problem—who suffer the most.
Flooded shops and homes in Lamego District
Elena Heatherwick / Oxfam
How does climate change affect poverty and inequality?
At Oxfam, we know that climate change, poverty, and inequality are linked. The impact of shifting weather patterns, droughts, flooding, and storms hits poor and marginalized communities first and worst, causing unpredictable growing seasons, crop failures, and sharp increases in food prices. People in low-and lower-middle-income countries are around five times more likely than people in high-income countries to be displaced by sudden extreme weather disasters; and long standing gender, racial and economic inequalities mean that historically marginalized communities are the hardest hit and most impacted by the climate crisis.
Climate change contributes to fragility and the risk of conflict and disaster. Climate-fueled disasters were the number one driver of internal displacement over the last decade –forcing an estimated 20 million people a year from their homes. Hunger is already increasing due to climate change. People are being forced from their livelihoods, homes and communities due to climate shocks and persistent climate stress—indigenous peoples being among those at greatest risk of displacement. Climate change increases the need for life-saving assistance and protection for those facing humanitarian disasters.

We also know that climate change has worsened global inequality. Across societies, the impacts of climate change affect women and men differently. Women and girls must walk further to collect water and fuel, and are often the last to eat. During and after extreme weather events, they are at increased risk of violence and exploitation. These inequalities can be seen in many other, often overlapping, dimensions too. And because Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities are more likely to live in poverty, they face these impacts while having fewer resources to respond to climate-induced natural disasters and adapt to changes in the climate.
Our collective response to combat climate change must not only address the climate impacts, but also deliver systemic transformation that centers environmental justice in order to address the climate crisis as well as economic, gender, and racial injustice. We are dedicated to working with these communities to prepare for disasters and build resilience to adapt and find long-term solutions to climate change.
Our Priorities for Climate Action

Oxfam’s Climate Change Initiatives
People are at the center of our approach to climate action. We strive to elevate the voices of indigenous peoples, farmers, pastoralists, and fishing communities to be heard in national deliberations over policy change. And we work to ensure that national-level development processes and investments promote resilience and prioritize communities in harm’s way.
Oxfam is working with partners and climate change advocates to counteract the effects of climate change on communities facing marginalization and exclusion, and we are pushing for those most capable of addressing the climate crisis to move first and most ambitiously.
For over a decade, Oxfam has campaigned to raise awareness of the unequal effects of climate change and to urge global leaders to take action. We are proud to be an organization fighting climate change with allies to address the root causes and impacts of this crisis.
In our environmental and climate change work we:
- Support small-scale farmers to adopt agricultural practices that will buffer them from the harmful effects of climate change.
- Work to enhance international climate ambition and cooperation by supporting the implementation of the Paris Agreement and driving equitable climate finance investments.
- Stand with indigenous and other communities advocating for their rights to land governance, water management, and food security where they are at risk from the drivers of deforestation and natural resource degradation.
- Call for alternative, community-based energy systems and investments that shift away from harmful fossil fuels to clean, sustainable energy that respects, protects, and enhances poor people’s livelihoods.
- Advocate for national action to equitably reduce emissions of pollutants that contribute to the climate crisis and negatively affect human and crop health.
- Call on elected officials to protect those most vulnerable to climate change and invest in equitable solutions to the climate crisis.
Learn more
We work with women and men to put in place adaptation and disaster risk reduction actions that also address the causes of vulnerability: inequality, gender injustice and poverty. We work to ensure that development planning addresses the causes of vulnerability and the climate crisis–and so integrates the issue of climate change across all our work. Learn more:
Physical Risks from Climate Change
Climate change stories
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Cash in Kenya helps families cope with drought
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Corporate transparency: The need of the hour
In the past year, we've seen a vicious backlash against “ESG” (environmental, social, and corporate governance measures meant to hold companies to account). Now, in the wake of midterm elections that left us with a divided Congress, the agency charged with ensuring corporate transparency faces fierce political headwinds.
Climate change facts
>2x
The world’s richest 1 percent of the population are responsible for more than twice as much emissions as the poorest 50 percent
581
The number of Burundians that are responsible for as much emissions as the average American per year
77%
The percentage of global emissions that Europe, North America, Australia, and Japan were responsible for between 1751-2006