Climate risk assessment – Zambia

Zambia is now a lower middle-income country with consistent and robust economic growth and has progressed to the medium human development category. Despite improvements in economic performance, Poverty levels remains high with more than 55% of the population living below the poverty line. Climate-induced changes are already exerting considerable stress on the country’s vulnerable sectors which will haul people into further poverty. Floods and droughts have increased in frequency over the past three decades, costing the nation an estimated 0.4% in annual economic growth. Climate change impacts will have negative impacts on different sectors and increase vulnerability of the categories of the population who are already vulnerable.

This Climate Risk Assessment outlines the Climate Context in country, climate hazards, impacts and vulnerability, policy framework, and presents key recommendations to improve climate change integration in development programming.