UN Report: Caribbean’s Poor Face Growing Climate Threat

UNITED NATIONS – Caribbean nations continue to grapple with deep inequalities and rising climate risks, according to the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2025 released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative.

The report, titled ‘Overlapping Hardships: Poverty and Climate Hazards’, paints a stark picture of how poverty and climate change are converging across the developing world.

It reveals that 23.5 per cent of people in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) – about 13.6 million people – live in multidimensional poverty, which accounts not only for income but also for access to education, health, housing, sanitation, and energy.

While some Caribbean countries have made progress, the region remains sharply divided. Haiti continues to record some of the highest poverty levels globally, with more than 40 per cent of its population considered multidimensionally poor. Basic deprivations such as access to clean cooking fuel, safe drinking water, sanitation, and adequate housing remain widespread.

By contrast, countries such as Trinidad and Tobago and Cuba have recorded less than one per cent of their populations living in multidimensional poverty, reflecting strong social protection systems and near-universal access to basic services.

In Guyana, the report found a relatively low national poverty rate of 1.8 per cent, but with sharp regional disparities—ranging from as little as 0.1 per cent to as high as 23 per cent depending on the region.

Across the Caribbean and other island states, the most common deprivations include lack of clean cooking fuel, poor sanitation, substandard housing, and unreliable electricity. The report estimates that 11.5 million poor people in SIDS are affected by lack of electricity, with the majority in Haiti, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Guinea-Bissau, and Vanuatu.

The UNDP warns that climate change is worsening these vulnerabilities. Sea-level rise poses an existential threat to low-lying coastal communities, with projections showing that under a very high emissions scenario, ocean levels could rise by as much as 70 centimetres by 2080–2099 in islands such as Belize.

The report noted that SIDS face a double burden of poverty and climate change, noting that many poor households are already contending with floods, droughts, and high heat, alongside economic and social deprivation.

Globally, the MPI finds that 1.1 billion people, or 18.3 per cent of the population in 109 countries, live in acute poverty. Nearly 28 per cent of children are poor, compared to 13.5 per cent of adults.

UNDP calls for urgent, integrated policies that link poverty reduction, climate adaptation, and sustainable development, particularly for island states on the frontlines of the climate crisis.

“Responding to overlapping risks requires prioritising both people and the planet,” the report urges. “Aligning poverty reduction, climate mitigation and adaptation, and ecosystem restoration makes it possible for resilient communities to emerge and thrive, with no one left behind, especially on the front lines of a warming world.”