Climate Impact Assessments With a Lens on Inequality

Climate impact assessments inform climate change discussions. Integrated use of biophysical and economic models made it possible to move from assessments exclusively focused on the physical impacts, to assessments that incorporate the prospective effects on human welfare. Effects on poverty and livelihoods are better understood. However, even though structural inequalities exacerbate exposure and vulnerability to climate change, the nexus between climate change and inequality remains underresearched. We suggest ways to feature inequalities prominently in climate impact assessments hoping to encourage new research. We suggest how to use modeling capability to explore how existing inequalities may worsen in the face of climate hazards, through perturbation of natural resource systems, unemployment of production factors, a lack of access to human capital and basic services, and socioeconomic attributes that place people at a disadvantage. We also point to the policy analysis that one can develop and areas to improve it going forward.