The Asia-Pacific region, highly vulnerable to climate change, experiences frequent and intense disasters that disproportionately affect low-income communities and threaten recent gains in poverty reduction. In 2022 alone, over 64 million people were affected by extreme weather, with economic damages reaching US$57 billion. Despite past progress in poverty alleviation, rising climate risks threaten to push over 260 million people into poverty within the next decade without stronger social protection systems.
This report highlights the urgent need to build adaptive and shock-responsive systems by integrating climate risk data into social protection information systems. Drawing on case studies from Sri Lanka and Lao PDR, it presents key actions such as improving climate hazard mapping for better geographic targeting, incorporating climate vulnerability indicators into registries, identifying and supporting at-risk “non-poor” households, developing a household-level climate risk index, enhancing data interoperability across government systems, and fostering multisectoral coordination. These measures are essential to ensure timely, targeted support for vulnerable populations facing increasing climate shocks.
