Impact of heat on the impoverished
This report examines the relationship between climate change, extreme weather, and urban poverty, with particular attention to how environmental hazards disproportionately affect economically vulnerable populations. The research focuses on the ways that socioeconomic conditions, housing, employment, access to resources, and urban infrastructure shape a community's ability to respond to climate-related hazards.
The report demonstrates that climate change does not affect all urban residents equally. Individuals experiencing poverty are often more exposed to environmental hazards while having fewer resources available to prepare for, respond to, and recover from them. Poor housing conditions, limited access to cooling or reliable utilities, insecure employment, inadequate healthcare access, and residence in hazard-prone areas can create a cycle in which environmental stress further reinforces existing economic and social vulnerabilities.
Extreme heat provides a particularly important example. In densely populated urban environments, the urban heat-island effect can intensify temperatures, while people living in informal settlements, working outdoors, or experiencing homelessness may have limited opportunities to escape dangerous heat. These conditions demonstrate that climate vulnerability is not solely an environmental issue; it is also connected to questions of housing, employment, public health, infrastructure, and social inequality. Research on Delhi, for example, identifies outdoor workers, residents of informal settlements, and people without stable housing as particularly vulnerable to extreme heat.
The report also highlights Chennai, where heavy rainfall and flooding have created significant challenges for low-income communities. Communities located along waterways and in flood-prone areas have experienced displacement, property loss, disruption of livelihoods, and difficulties recovering after major flooding events. The experience of Chennai illustrates how urban development, infrastructure, environmental change, and socioeconomic inequality can interact to increase vulnerability.