The Overlooked Link Between Sustainability and Global Poverty
- Bianca Filoni
- 35 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Bianca Filoni
Introduction: Sustainability Is Also a Human Issue
Sustainability is the ability to meet current needs without compromising the needs of the future. Many times we think of this environmentally in regards to how our actions can alter the planet’s health. However, most of us tend to overlook how sustainability is also applicable to people living on Earth. Sustainability factors in the environment, society, culture, and the economy-which is why we need to also consider the human aspect when looking to preserve our planet.
In 2025, there are an estimated 831 million people living in poverty worldwide, which means
they survive on less than $3 per day (World Bank Group, 2025). Climate change is set to increase that number by 120 million people by 2030 (Action Aid, 2026). The unpredictable weather conditions and extreme disasters paired with the destruction these events carry, it worsens poorer communities.
Poverty Increases Vulnerability to Environmental Harm
When natural disasters occur, there is little to no infrastructure to prevent damage to homes,
roads, and the environment. To fully hurricane-proof a house in the U.S. on average it costs
between $250-$350 per square foot (Homes Direct, 2025). To put that in perspective, that's more than many families in low-income countries earn in a lifetime. This is simply not a priority or in the budget for families who live on less than $3 a day. When a storm, hurricane, tornado, etc. happens, there are also less resources for emergency services and recovery efforts. With these natural disasters occurring more severely and more frequently, it could be cataclysmic for these populations.
Many individuals in poorer communities rely on harvests and their natural resources for survival, making it significantly more difficult to recover from natural disasters and weather-related incidents. Approximately 78% of the world’s poorest individuals live in rural areas and largely rely on farming, agriculture, or aquaculture to make a living and put food on the table (World Bank Group, 2014). Crop yield failures are estimated to be 4.5 times higher by 2030 and potentially up to 25 times higher by 2050 (Bhargawa and Bhargava, 2023). Without those industries' ability to function, suddenly they need to pay for the food with income they don’t have.
Environmental Harm Can Trap Communities in Poverty
The poverty trap is an unfortunate but common mechanism which causes poverty to reinforce itself (Barbier, 2025), trapping the individual into their socioeconomic position. Due to many low-income families relying on the fluctuating conditions of agriculture and labor, poverty-environment traps are especially hard to overcome due to changing ecosystems, climate change, and misuse of resources.
These traps result in destroyed livelihoods if land is not arable. The cycle works by the family 1) no longer making money off of the sold crops, 2) they do not have food themselves to eat, and 3) they now need to outsource food with no money to do so. It doesn’t take long for one bad harvest to unravel everything.
In extreme cases, the poverty trap adds another component to itself when people need to relocate. Many times, the spread of disease intensifies when traveling with others and new populations. Diseases can not only spread when populations are migrating but in regards to global warming, warming of the planet just 2 or 3 degrees can cause more than 150 million cases of malaria (Bhargawa and Bhargava, 2023). Adding a health epidemic to poverty is another factor in causing it to persist. In addition, this means there are less people to work to support the family and manage the health of the land if they succumb to these illnesses. As you can see, these conditions are incredibly tricky to get out of in general, but when you add in an unpredictable climate disaster, it’s almost impossible.
Environmental Justice: Those Least Responsible Are Most Affected
The most unfair part is that 74 lowest-income countries are the most affected by the world’s
contributions to climate change and only produce one-tenth of the overall emissions (Bhargawa and Bhargava, 2023). In the past 10 years, these regions have experienced 8 times as many natural disasters as they did back in the 1980s (Bhargawa and Bhargava, 2023).
Climate change also impacts more than hunger and loss of income. Flooding from rising sea
levels is compounding this issue by pushing vulnerable populations off their land and further into poverty. China, Bangladesh, and India are named as the most vulnerable with over 900 million people in at-risk coastal areas (Masterson et al., 2025).
Water itself is another resource where there is a clear disparity in access for those in poverty. As extreme weather accelerates the water cycle through rising temperatures, the communities that are least equipped to handle changing rainfalls and climates are the ones who are facing the consequences.
Water is a resource that is emphasized by the United Nations in the SDG Goal 6, and is essential for human life. Right now, there are 2.1 billion people worldwide who lack access to safe drinking water, which is about 1 in 4 people (World Health Organization and UNICEF, 2025). There are now estimates that by 2030, 700 million people will be displaced due to intense water scarcity (UNICEF, n.d.). Even within wealthy nations, environmental burdens fall disproportionately on low-income communities from contaminated water systems to access to water in general.
What Can We Do About It?
We’ve established that the ability to farm is essential to low-income communities. But to
properly do so, we need to institute climate resilient farming methods.
First, diversifying the food chain will help withstand any destruction of crops or if the crops fail to yield. This method would include using different crops to help reduce the reliance on a single commodity. Sometimes the solutions are simpler than we think. In Cambodia, they heavily rely on the production of cashews but when harvests are delayed or aren’t as fruitful, they struggle. By adding in the production of cassava, another ‘must have’ crop in the region, it would help ensure they have at least one additional source of income to rely on.
Another similar low-cost solution is to create soil and water conservation structures. This
involves building channels and trenches to relieve excess water. Not only does it slow down the water absorption into the soil and prevent flooding, but it reduces erosion and helps refresh the groundwater (WOTR Communications, n.d.). For any sort of farming that requires rainwater, percolation tanks and farm ponds are useful to use water upon demand.
Speaking of water, food and water are something that every person needs to survive and for
lower-income communities, these aren’t always easy to obtain. Not only can you harvest
rainwater for crops, but with the water cycle changing due to the climate, it is a safe bet to have a rainwater harvesting system. This is already common in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa as the rainwater is not always consistent (Biazin et al., 2012). The only catch is that the water still needs to be purified to be safe so there needs to be further research on how to scale this tactic economically and logistically.
Conclusion: Act Now
When the 74 lowest-income countries produce just one-tenth of global emissions yet bear the heaviest consequences of climate change, it adds another dimension to an already unjust situation. While poverty seems like an isolated issue, it is deeply interconnected with the environment and how it can sustain life. When one need is not met, it makes it that much harder to survive.
Acting now with more resilient farming methods and increased access to clean water worldwide can help with both climate adaptation and the fight against global poverty.
True sustainability is not just accounting for the planet but everyone in it as well.
Citations
ActionAid UK. (2026, January 28). Climate change and poverty. ActionAid.
Barbier E. B. (2025). Poverty-disease-environment traps: Locally tailored solutions and
collective action. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 122(5), e2425786122. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2425786122
Bhargawa, R., & Bhargava, M. (2023, January 13). The climate crisis disproportionately hits the poor. How can we protect them? World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/01/climate-crisis-poor-davos2023/
Biazin, B., Sterk, G., Temesgen, M., Abdulkedir, A., & Stroosnijder, L. (2012). Rainwater
harvesting and management in rainfed agricultural systems in sub-Saharan Africa: A
review. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 47–48, 139–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2011.08.015
Homes Direct. (2025, May 6). Hurricane-proof houses: Designs, costs, and how to build one. Homes Direct. https://www.thehomesdirect.com/blog/hurricane-proof-houses-designs-costs-how-to-build-one
UNICEF. (n.d.). Water scarcity. UNICEF. https://www.unicef.org/wash/water-scarcity
Masterson, V., Hall, S., & North M. (2025, March 25). Rising sea levels: A global threat. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/03/rising-sea-levels-global-threat/
United Nations. (n.d.) Water – at the center of the climate crisis. United Nations.
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/water
Teng, J., & Craigen, A. (2025, October 16). 5 ways to make agriculture and food systems more resilient. UNDP Climate Promise. https://climatepromise.undp.org/news-and-stories/5-ways-make-agriculture-and-food-systems-more-resilient
World Bank Group. (2014, November 12). For up to 800 million rural poor, a strong World Bank commitment to agriculture. World Bank. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2014/11/12/for-up-to-800-million-rural-poor-a-strong-world-bank-commitment-to-agriculture
World Bank Group. (2025, October 2). Poverty overview. World Bank.
https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview
World Health Organization & UNICEF. (2025, August 26). 1 in 4 people globally still lack access to safe drinking water. WHO.https://www.who.int/news/item/26-08-2025-1-in-4-people-globally-still-lack-access-to-safe-drinking-water---who--unicef
WOTR Communications (n.d.) Top 10 low-cost climate-smart farming practices for smallholderfarmers. WOTR.https://wotr.org/top-10-low-cost-climate-smart-farming-practices-for-smallholder-farmers/
