This paper was commissioned by the IFRC and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre as a first scan of the overlapping impacts of COVID-19 and climate-related disasters, to inform policy discussions in the UN and beyond, and to inspire further academic work on the compound impacts of COVID and climate, and to inform the scientific assessment of the IPCC.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented humanitarian crisis which intersects with the global climate emergency. Climate change has not stopped in the midst of the pandemic’s global spread. In fact, COVID-19 is directly affecting and increasing the needs of persons affected by climate-related disasters. People in the path of extreme weather events are currently faced with overlapping disasters with compounding effects.

This paper aims to provide a preliminary analysis of the number of people jointly affected by COVID-19 and climate-related disasters – demonstrating the multi-layered nature of these crises and highlighting the compounded vulnerability faced by communities.