Social vulnerability in three high-poverty climate change hot spots : what does the climate change literature tell us?

Adaptation research must recognize the close links between poverty and vulnerability. The three hot spots are all characterized by high levels of natural resource dependence, with increasing environmental degradation. This review is based on analysis of 87 high-quality articles, focusing on literature which self-identifies as research related to climate variability and change, with the aim of exploring how social vulnerability is understood by climate change and adaptation communities. Although the vulnerability of low-income populations is often ascribed simply to poverty, "it is far more the result of government failures and limitations" creating disabling environments for adaptation