Climate change and poverty are seen as the two big challenges to humankind this century. The interlinkages between these two problems are underappreciated and understudied. Large parts of the global population still live at desperate poverty levels. Sustainable Development requires to meet the twin objective of ensuring that all people have the resources needed (such as food, water, access to health care and energy)to fulfill their human rights, and ensuring that humanity’s use of natural resources does not stress critical earth system processes. Our research explores how climate change and poverty intersect at various scales from the local to the global and how especially poor and marginal communities are most vulnerable to climate change.