Socio-Demographic Inequality in Climate Change Impacts

forthcoming

As climate change and extreme weather escalate across Europe, understanding the socio-demographic dimensions of climate events, environmental hazards, and their health consequences becomes increasingly vital. This is particularly important for designing more equitable strategies of environmental protection and climate adaptation, as well as facilitating healthier and more just societies. SOCIO-CLIMP has three primary objectives. 1) Investigating socio-demographic inequalities in exposure to extreme weather events, including their intersection with environmental hazards. 2) Analysing the disparities in vulnerability to extreme weather events - physical and mental health impacts of exposure - according to socio-demographic characteristics. 3) Evaluating how variations in individual and residential contexts contribute to inequalities in exposure and disparities in physical and mental impacts. SOCIO-CLIMP analyses the socio-demographic correlates of exposure to climate events and environmental hazards using harmonised demographic data across 30 European countries from the 2021 census at a granular spatial resolution. It combines the spatial data with individual-level panel data in the UK and Germany to provide groundbreaking insights into the physical and mental vulnerability (as the cumulative health burden) of different socio-demographic groups to these climate events. SOCIO-CLIMP represents an innovative effort to understand the socio-demographic inequality in climate change impacts across Europe. It will transform our comprehension of who is exposed to climate change, where specific sub-populations are particularly exposed, how vulnerable these groups are to exposure, and what can be done to effectively mitigate the negative impacts. It will uncover vital insights into social disparities related to climate change, inform targeted interventions, and contribute robust evidence for addressing the demographic and social challenges of climate change.