Poverty Reduction Effect of Adaptation to Climate Change: Empirical Evidence from China’s Loess Plateau and Qinba Mountains

Based on the micro-survey data of rural households in China’s Loess Plateau and Qinba Mountains, this paper empirically examines the poverty reduction effect and mechanism of adaptation to climate change. The research conclusions show that the adaptation actions can significantly reduce the poverty vulnerability of farmers, especially the future incidence of poverty in agricultural or poor households to a greater extent, which is characterized by a “pro-poor” effect. Adaptation actions can reduce poverty from two aspects: decreasing the expected income volatility (loss mitigation effect) and increasing the expected income level (opportunity effect), and the former is stronger than the latter. In the post-2020 period, China should enhance policy support in rural areas to adapt to climate change, improve the resilience of farmers’ livelihoods and climate change resilience of rural areas, and promote sustainable poverty reduction.