New risk assessment finds that Haiti is the country most threatened by climate change

The 2012 Climate Change Vulnerability Index lists Haiti as the country that is most vulnerable to the effects of climate change:

The fourth release of Maplecroft’s Climate Change and Environment Risk Atlas includes a new Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) that analyses and maps climate change vulnerability down to 25km² worldwide. It reveals that some of the world’s fastest growing populations are increasingly at risk from the impacts of climate related natural hazards including sea level rise.

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The Climate Change Vulnerability Index features subnational maps and analysis of climate change vulnerability and the adaptive capacity to combat climate change in 193 countries. It features an improved methodology analysing the exposure of populations to climate related natural hazards and sensitivity of countries in terms of population concentration, development, natural resources, agricultural dependency and conflict.

At a national level, the CCVI rates 30 countries at ‘extreme risk,’ with the top 10 comprising of Haiti, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Cambodia, Mozambique, DR Congo, Malawi and Philippines.

In the last similar assessment of climate change risk Haiti was ranked as the 7th most vulnerable country. Unfortunately I don’t have access to the full rankings, so I can’t say where other Caribbean countries place on the list.

See reports on the 2012 assessment from CNN and the Guardian (UK) blog. As Damian Carrington points out in the Guardian article, the climate risk map illustrates the reality that it is the world’s less-developed countries that are bearing the brunt of changing climate.

Tags: haiti, international