Climate Change and Poverty: The Nexus Analysis of North East Nigeria

Climate change is an undeniable fact of human experience all around the globe, particularly in Nigeria. Climate change and poverty refer to the way environmental changes and global warming affect the living conditions, livelihoods, and economic survival of poor and vulnerable populations across regions of the world. Hence, climate change affects poverty in the North East through various interconnected pathways of economic, social and security environments. Using secondary data, the study revealed that the North East region faces serious structural vulnerabilities such as high dependence on agriculture, volatile social infrastructure, terrorism and state failure. Climate change tends to aggravate the existing poverty level in the region rather than create new shocks. This paper, therefore, examines the connection between climate change and the poverty situation in the North East region of Nigeria. It is found that the effect of climate change on livelihoods, agriculture, security, health, employment and the environment cannot be overstated. These effects came as a result of the devastating outcomes of deforestation, flooding, drought, erosion, desertification, and erratic rainfall cycles, among others. The paper recommends that the Nigerian government, as a matter of urgency, make a decisive review of the climate policies capable of arresting the tide of climate adverse effects on the region and also key into the new technologies' adaptation for a better and robust existence of the populations in the region.