Vulnerability

Along with the regular posts, I will be posting shorter* ones about climate change today. Let's start with vulnerability!

A few days ago the UNEP tweeted an interesting map of a ranking of countries by vulnerability.

This map compares 3 lists of countries ranked by #climatechange vulnerability. Surprised? http://t.co/TmY5EusCti pic.twitter.com/B4Dpj6chLl
— UN Environment (@UNEP) November 1, 2014

Well yes, I was surprised. 

First, because there is a lot of discrepancy between the indices, with several countries appearing among most vulnerable and least vulnerable lists simultaneously. The second thing I noticed is that Peru appears to have no data. 

So let's look at the three indices used to make the map. 

DARA Climate vulnerability monitor

Uses 34 indicators to link the effects of climate change with the economic, ecological and social costs. In the social aspect it includes deaths and number of people affected.

Notre Dame Global Adaptation (GAIN) Index

Their vulnerability score is based on 36 indicators. From the page: "ND-GAIN measures overall vulnerability by considering six life-supporting sectors: food, water, health, ecosystem service, human habitat, and infrastructure."  The total ND GAIN score includes each countries readiness along with the vulnerability.

Germanwatch's Global Climate Risk Index

Uses information of the social and economic effects of extreme weather events that occurred between 1990 and 2009. It does not consider indirect effects or events, such as glacier melting. In the social aspect, it only includes deaths associated with extreme weather events, not number of people affected. It produced two rankings, one for the most affected countries from 1990-2009 and another only for 2009. 

Basically, even though the three indices are related to climate change vulnerability, they are not looking at the same things and are not necessarily comparable. Also, each methodology will have certain limitation based on the data used, so that can explain why the results are not as expected. If something doesn't make sense at first, look at the methodology and data used! This doesn't mean an index is wrong or right, it is just that they have a different goal and will use different data. Each webpage linked has a lot of very interesting information, so check them out.

I must note that I still don't understand why Peru appears as "data non available", since it was analyzed in all three indices (ND GAIN: 71 out of 180 in the vulnerability index; Germanwatch: 47th most affected from 1990-2009 and 51st in 2009; DARA CVM: severely vulnerable). What this shows is that we must all be prepared! Every country will probably be affected in one way or another and it is in our hands NOW to take the necessary measures to be ready.

*Did I say shorter at the beginning?