Over the past century, the world has seen a sustained decline in the proportion of people living in poverty. In the past three decades alone, the rate of extreme global poverty has been halved, a remarkable trend that is expected to continue. The Poverty and Welfare Impacts of Climate Change: Quantifying the Eff ects, Identifying the Adaptation Strategies delves into the vitally important question of the impact of climate change and surveys existing research on its potential consequences on global poverty rates. It looks closely at vulnerable rural populations in Indonesia and Mexico, where the increased frequency of weather extremes has had measureable short-term, if not immediate, effects on the farming livelihoods on which many people depend for both income and subsistence. This book advances the consideration of key climate change eff ects and their implication for poverty-reduction progress during the world’s transition toward a new climate equilibrium. By examining the impact of climate change on rural populations—and the effectiveness of their adaptation strategies—the authors provide a preview of the social consequences arising from a potentially volatile global problem.