Concrete examples from all over Belgium

  • Homeowners in flood-prone areas may find themselves trapped: unable to sell, insure, renovate or repair their property. As for low-income tenants, who often live in poorly insulated and poorly ventilated buildings, they will be impacted more severely by heatwaves and poor air quality. They will rarely have the means to move house.
  • Farmers will face various risks: extreme temperatures, livestock diseases, water scarcity, reduced yields for certain crops, the loss of pollinators and exposure to vector-borne diseases. These factors will generate substantial economic and psychological pressures.
  • City dwellers will be increasingly exposed to urban heat islands in the years to come, more air pollution and increased risks of communicable diseases. As for rural populations, in the case of an extreme weather event, they may have difficulty accessing medical care, given their geographical isolation.

Cumulative vulnerabilities

Some people will see their exposure to climate risks increased by a combination of vulnerability factors, such as precarious housing, unstable employment and poor health. For example, in the event of a flood, a single mother of two young children living in a disadvantaged neighbourhood in a flood zone faces various constraints: she cannot move house, and evacuating her children is complicated and slow. Moreover, there are health risks due to the presence of mould. She is therefore more exposed to this risk than someone without any of these vulnerabilities.

A challenge for adaptation policies

Els Barnard, social issues expert at Cerac, explains: "If the needs of vulnerable groups are not taken into account in adaptation policies, social, economic and health inequalities will rise. Social cohesion will weaken, and people will have less trust in our institutions". Taking social issues into account in climate policies, in particular adaptation policies, is therefore essential in order toto strengthen Belgium's resilience.

For further information, please refer to chapter 4 of the report. You will find an overview of the social vulnerabilities to the risks analysed in the BCRA. In chapter 7, you will find, among other things, an overview of our recommendations for ensuring just resilience.