EXPRESS: Uplifting Without Overheating: Navigating the Intersection of Financial and Climate Vulnerabilities

A persistent imbalance exists between financial and climate vulnerabilities: Financially vulnerable consumers contribute the least to climate change, yet they suffer the most from its negative impacts, while the opposite is true for wealthier consumers. A conceptual framework formalizes these dueling tensions and acknowledges that increasing available financial resources can reduce consumer financial vulnerability and bolster climate resilience, but it also can encourage more consumption and create larger ecological footprints that accelerate climate change. Consumers experiencing climate-induced harms (economic, food and water access, health, social and institutional) enter a reinforcing feedback loop, such that their recovery from these harms depletes their financial resources, increasing their financial vulnerability in the future. To break this cycle, a stakeholder-centric approach should focus on climate mitigation interventions (reducing ecological footprints) while advocating for increased focus on adaptation interventions (building resilience to anticipated and experienced climate impacts) across macro (public policy), meso (organizations), and micro (consumer) levels. A proposed framework offers guidelines for intervention designs and research opportunities for providing actionable strategies for policy makers, marketers, consumers, and communities. By defining climate change as both an environmental crisis and a social justice challenge, this research highlights its contributions to both financial vulnerability and economic inequality.