Climate change and the Global South: those hit hardest are the least responsible
- Africa emits less than 4% of global greenhouse gases, yet it is warming faster than the planet as a whole.
- In 2025, extreme weather events affected at least 13 million people and caused more than 3,000 deaths on the continent, according to the WMO.
- Poor countries are more exposed and have fewer means to protect themselves: this is climate injustice.
- Droughts, floods and rising seas are making hunger worse and forcing millions of people to leave their home regions.
- The solutions lie in local adaptation: resilient agriculture, access to water, reforestation and coastal restoration.
In 2025, climate disasters affected at least 13 million people in Africa and killed more than 3,000, according to the World Meteorological Organization report published in June 2026. In East Africa alone, drought hit more than 8.5 million people.
Yet the continent emits less than 4% of the planet's greenhouse gases. On average, a person in Mali or Niger emits a fraction of what a European emits.
This is the central paradox of climate change: poor countries suffer its harshest effects even though they are the least responsible for it. Understanding why also helps us understand how to help them.
Why are poor countries the hardest hit by climate change?
More exposed geography
Many countries in the Global South lie in areas that are already hot, arid or low-lying. In the Sahel, a few tenths of a degree more are enough to tip a growing season into failure. In Bangladesh, much of the country sits just a few metres above sea level.
The WMO points out that Africa is warming faster than the global average, and that sea levels are rising faster than average along several African coastlines, by up to around 5 mm a year in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.
Economies that depend on the climate
In many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, rain-fed agriculture supports the majority of the population. When the rains come too late, too heavily or not at all, it is harvests, incomes and meals that directly disappear.
Fewer means to protect themselves
Dykes, irrigation systems, early warnings, crop insurance, emergency aid: rich countries have tools to cushion the shocks. Poor countries have far fewer. The WMO notes that serious gaps remain in early warning systems in Africa and in the least developed countries.
Vulnerability to climate change depends on three factors: exposure to hazards, dependence on natural resources and the capacity to cope. Countries in the Global South often combine all three.
Who is really responsible for climate change?
Greenhouse gas emissions are very unevenly distributed. Historically, the industrialised countries of North America and Europe have emitted most of the CO2 accumulated in the atmosphere since the 19th century.
The gaps are still considerable today. The carbon footprint of a French person reaches 8.3 tonnes of CO2e a year, compared with a global average of around 6.4 tonnes, and far less than one tonne for someone living in the Sahel. Oxfam studies also show that the richest 10% of the planet are responsible for around half of global emissions.
This imbalance is what we call climate injustice: those who contributed least to the problem pay the highest price.
What is the international community doing?
Rich countries have committed to funding adaptation in the Global South. A loss and damage fund was created at COP28 in 2023 to help countries struck by disasters. But the amounts pledged remain far below estimated needs, and disbursements are slow.
To understand how scientists analyse this situation, our article Climate emergency: what do 6 climate experts think? gives the floor to specialists.
What are the concrete consequences for people in the Global South?
Hunger
Droughts and floods destroy crops and livestock. In North Africa, the heatwaves and prolonged droughts of 2025 hit agricultural production hard. In the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, every failed season pushes families into food insecurity.
Water
Climate change makes water scarcer where it was already lacking. Wells drying up, falling water tables, more erratic rainfall: access to drinking water is becoming harder and more expensive.
Biodiversity
The ecosystems people depend on are shrinking: forests, mangroves, reefs, savannahs. Africa's biodiversity, threatened on all sides, is also a vital resource for millions of families.
Displacement
When the land can no longer feed them, families leave. Displacement caused by climate disasters already runs into tens of millions of people worldwide every year. These climate refugees need help that is still very poorly organised.
Hunger, water shortages and forced displacement feed off one another and can fuel tensions between communities over land and water points. Acting early costs far less than reacting to crises.
How can we help countries in the Global South adapt to climate change?
Cutting emissions remains essential to limit warming. But for the people already affected, the priority is adaptation: learning to live and produce in a climate that has already changed.
| Adaptation lever | Effect for local people |
|---|---|
| Access to water (wells, boreholes, rainwater harvesting) | Secures drinking water, hygiene and crops during droughts |
| Resilient agriculture and agroforestry | Protects the soil, retains water, diversifies income |
| Reforestation with useful trees | Slows erosion, provides fruit and income, restores the land |
| Mangrove restoration | Protects coastlines from swell and storms, supports fishing |
| Food aid in times of crisis | Prevents families from selling their assets to survive |
What LIFE does on the ground
Active since 2009 in more than 25 countries, LIFE works on precisely these levers: building wells, distributing food and, through the Sapousse programme, planting economic trees and restoring ecosystems.
In Bangladesh and Indonesia, LIFE plants mangroves and bamboo, which protect coastlines and riverbanks. In Indonesia, in the West Nusa Tenggara region, 20,000 trees have been planned on communal land and in at-risk areas such as riverbanks. In Madagascar, Kanto explains that the replanted mangrove protects her village better and has allowed her to start shrimp farming.
In total, more than 250,000 trees have been planted and more than 14,000 people supported. LIFE's key figures present all of these actions.
These projects will not erase climate injustice. But they allow families to withstand the shocks rather than lose everything.
Donations to LIFE's environmental projects qualify for a 66% tax reduction. Calculate what your donation really costs you →
With €2, you plant a tree or a mangrove that protects the soil, the coastline and the income of a family in a country of the Global South.
Take climate action with LIFE →Why is Africa the continent hardest hit by climate change?
Because it is warming faster than the global average, most of its population depends on rain-sensitive agriculture and it has fewer means to protect itself from disasters. Yet it emits less than 4% of global greenhouse gases.
What is climate injustice?
It is the fact that the people who have contributed least to climate change, often in poor countries, suffer its most serious effects, while the highest-emitting countries and individuals are often better protected.
How many people are affected by climate disasters in Africa?
According to the WMO, at least 13 million people were affected and more than 3,000 died as a result of extreme weather and climate events in Africa in 2025.
How can we help poor countries face climate change?
By reducing our own emissions, and by supporting adaptation projects on the ground: access to water, resilient agriculture, reforestation, mangrove restoration and food aid in times of crisis.
Is the loss and damage fund enough?
No. Created at COP28 in 2023, it marks political progress, but the amounts pledged remain far below the needs of affected countries, estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
