Risk, both of the capital and the corporeal kind, is top of mind to many people these days. Natural disasters, such as avalanches in posh Italian ski resorts and landslides in the Hollywood Hills, are tragic reminders of wicked weather’s wrath. And political uprisings are becoming commonplace.
While Mother Nature doesn’t tune into CNN, politics and the climate are connected.
Under the Trump presidency, “If the U.S. reverts to a more carbon heavy energy mix, China, India, and other nations have less of an incentive to cut their emissions, which in turn brings forward the risk of dangerous climate change outcomes,” reports Verisk Maplecroft, the London-based global risk research and analytics firm.
With its 2017 Climate Change Vulnerability Index, Verisk Maplecroft showcases the countries and locales most exposed.
The African continent hosts the worst performing countries under a weakened political climate change scenario. The Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and South Sudan are among the top five most vulnerable places in 2017, according to Verisk Maplecroft. Haiti is the only non-African country that makes the list.
“The data reveal that along with changing weather patterns, a reliance on agriculture and a lack of adaptive capacity exacerbates vulnerability in these nations,” Verisk Maplecroft explains.
Meanwhile, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, Iceland and Ireland rank as the five best performing countries under a heightened climate change risk scenario.
The Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) evaluates the vulnerability of human populations to extreme climate related events and changes in major climate parameters over the next 30 years. It combines the risk of exposure to climate change and extreme events, with the current human sensitivity to that exposure and the capacity of the country to adapt to, or take advantage of, the potential impacts of climate change, according to Verisk Maplecroft.