December 1, 2010

Source: Reliefweb

The Climate Vulnerability Monitor takes a new approach to assessing the climate vulnerability of the world and its regions, countries and communities. The Monitor looks at pre-existing characteristics of society that are knowingly affected by climate change and maps the level of vulnerability and expected impacts as implied by the effect that real or projected changes in the climate will have on these. The Monitor uses globally comparable information in order to establish reference points across countries. The Monitor’s analysis is built around four distinct climate impact areas, five levels — called factors — of vulnerability to climate change, and two points in time, 2010 and 2030. The impact areas were chosen because they represent most of (but not all) the main impacts of climate change and form distinctive types of responses in each area — although some measures to reduce impacts or vulnerability could have beneficial effects across several or all impact areas. The vulnerability factors are determined statistically and indicate how different an effect is expected to be from a baseline of zero impact due to climate change. The factors remain static from 2010 to 2030 demonstrating how vulnerability would evolve under climate changes expected over the next 20 years if measures are not taken to reduce vulnerabilities. Climate change is never linked to any specific event, but considered an added stress, effect, or change that carries consequences we consider positive or negative. The estimative figures of impacts mentioned in this report are yielded from the Monitor’s specific methodology and represent additional impacts due to climate change. They are a plausible snapshot of what is expected to already be taking place and what might eventuate in the near future. Wherever possible leading expertise and scientific modelling has been relied upon (see “Climate Vulnerability Monitor Architecture”, p.54). Still, there are gaps in the base data the tool relies on as well as gaps in several research areas that restrict our full understanding of the effects of climate change. The Monitor represents just one possible way of measuring climate vulnerability that we expect can be greatly and continually improved upon