FAO recognizes that those living in rural areas whose livelihoods depend heavily on natural resources, are disproportionately affected by climate risks because of their great likelihood of living in high-risk geographical locations as well as their high vulnerability to, and limited capacity to cope with, climate hazards due to low incomes, lack of savings, weaker social networks, low asset bases and heavy reliance on agriculture and natural resources. Protecting poor and vulnerable small scale producers from the negative impacts of climate risks is an imperative in order to reach FAO’s strategic objectives and achieve Sustainable development goal one and two. Managing Climate risks through social protection sheds light on social protection as an effective investment to safeguard the livelihood of small scale producers and strengthen their essential role in ensuring food security across the globe.

Rural populations, especially small-scale producers and women, are disproportionately impacted by climate change since their livelihoods depend largely on natural resources and weather patterns. [Author] This paper reviews the available evidence on the role of social protection programmes in facilitating climate change adaptation and mitigation, with a specific emphasis on economic inclusion for agriculture-dependent households. [Author] The review also presents available evidence on the ability of social protection programmes to contribute to mitigation targets through reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and in easing the impact of climate mitigation policies on price inflation, job losses and income insecurity. [Author] The review underscores the importance of a systems approach. [Author] Both climate policies and social protection policies should incorporate specific elements to effectively complement each other. [Author]

Ending poverty and stabilizing climate change will be two unprecedented global achievements and two major steps toward sustainable development. But the two objectives cannot be considered in isolation: they need to be jointly tackled through an integrated strategy. This report brings together those two objectives and explores how they can more easily be achieved if considered together. It examines the potential impact of climate change and climate policies on poverty reduction. It also provides guidance on how to create a “win-win†? situation so that climate change policies contribute to poverty reduction and poverty-reduction policies contribute to climate change mitigation and resilience building. The key finding of the report is that climate change represents a significant obstacle to the sustained eradication of poverty, but future impacts on poverty are determined by policy choices: rapid, inclusive, and climate-informed development can prevent most short-term impacts whereas immediate pro-poor, emissions-reduction policies can drastically limit long-term ones.

Climate risk is an important driver of long-term poverty dynamics, especially in rural regions. This paper builds a dynamic, multi-generation household model of consumption, accumulation, and risk management to draw out the full consequences of exposure to climate risk. The model incorporates the long-term impacts of consumption shortfalls, induced by the optimal ?asset smoothing? coping behavior of the vulnerable, on the human capital and long-term wellbeing of families. The analysis shows that the long-term level and depth of poverty can be improved by incorporating elements of ?vulnerability-targeted social protection? into a conventional system of social protection. The paper also explores the degree to which vulnerability-targeted social protection can be implemented through a subsidized insurance mechanism. The analysis shows that insurance-based vulnerability-targeted social protection dominates (in economic growth and poverty reduction measures) both in-kind transfer mechanisms and vulnerability-targeted protection paid for using a public budget. The relative gains brought about by this scheme of insurance-augmented social protection increase?at least for a while?under climate change scenarios. However, if climate change becomes too severe, then even this novel form of social protection loses its ability to stabilize the extent and depth of poverty.

This publication serves as a roadmap for exploring and managing climate risk in the U.S. financial system. It is the first major climate publication by a U.S. financial regulator. The central message is that U.S. financial regulators must recognize that climate change poses serious emerging risks to the U.S. financial system, and they should move urgently and decisively to measure, understand, and address these risks. Achieving this goal calls for strengthening regulators’ capabilities, expertise, and data and tools to better monitor, analyze, and quantify climate risks. It calls for working closely with the private sector to ensure that financial institutions and market participants do the same. And it calls for policy and regulatory choices that are flexible, open-ended, and adaptable to new information about climate change and its risks, based on close and iterative dialogue with the private sector. At the same time, the financial community should not simply be reactive—it should provide solutions. Regulators should recognize that the financial system can itself be a catalyst for investments that accelerate economic resilience and the transition to a net-zero emissions economy. Financial innovations, in the form of new financial products, services, and technologies, can help the U.S. economy better manage climate risk and help channel more capital into technologies essential for the transition. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5247742

Climate and disaster risk is increasing in the Asia and Pacific region, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities and creating new ones. The adverse effects are felt most by the poor and the vulnerable. Social protection programs, when designed with climate and disaster risk considerations in mind, provide enhanced opportunities to strengthen climate and disaster resilience. This guidance note underscores the importance of strengthening climate change and disaster resilience through social protection programs and proposes a working framework for social protection programs to deliver on resilience outcomes---reduced risk, strengthened capacity to adapt, and enhanced residual risk management strategies to help recover from the adverse impacts of slow-onset and rapid-onset hazards.