Viewpoint: Central Banks Must Connect Climate Change and Financial Inclusion
By Johanna Nyman and Eric Zusman
In August 2019, Kerala in India faced a second straight summer of extended downpours and flooding. As rains inundated the region, a colleague working for a local government shared smartphone footage of rising waters moving fast enough to carry away cattle and deer.
While these images filled the screen, the colleague’s words revealed a more worrying result of the rains: climate change was destroying assets and deepening poverty for many of the region’s low-income people and small businesses. The unfortunate truth about Kerala and other parts of Asia is that those who have the least often suffer the most from a warmer climate.
This truth may nonetheless contain the seeds of a solution. Many of the same countries hit hard by climate change have also introduced programs to include the poor and small businesses in the financial system.
Photo courtesy of sasint.
Source: Nikkei Asian Review (link opens in a new window)
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