The Big Question: Climate’s Biggest Losers: Who Has the Most to Lose from Climate Change in Your Country

Abstract

With a host of climate-driven natural disasters in recent months, and among the worst winters in years in the northern hemisphere, there is an increasing perception that climate change is a critical reality that must be faced by a growing mass of the world’s population. Accordingly, we chose to ask our panel of global experts, weighing in from six continents, who in their country has the most at stake in the face of our changing climate and the forces driving these environmental disruptions.

Climate change has had and is projected to continue having huge impacts across all socio-economic sectors in Zimbabwe. However, immediate and critical impacts with huge losses will be felt mostly by smallholder subsistence rural farmers who also form the bulk of the marginalized poor. Smallholder farmers’ dependence on rainfall and temperature dynamics exposes them to climate variability...