LONDON, United Kingdom — A new report promises to help global companies assess climate change-related vulnerabilities of the countries in which they operate.
The
Maplecroft Climate Change Risk Report examines 168 countries and their ability to adapt to climate change to help companies and governments manage and mitigate future impacts.
"Companies can look at the risk exposure across their value chain," said
Maplecroft's Andy Thow, a lead researcher on the report.
Often, Thow said, climate change information is not specific to a region or hard for a non-expert to process. With the Maplecroft report, multinational companies can look at the communities in which they operate and identify weaknesses in their ability to adapt to climate change, which may help shape the direction of corporate-community investment.
The report measures climate change vulnerability in six areas: economy; natural resources and ecosystems; poverty, development and health; agriculture; population, settlement and infrastructure; and institutions, governance and social capital.
Many of the countries least vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change are also the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases blamed for climate change, the report found.
Roughly 75 percent of the 20 countries most vulnerable to climate change are located in Africa, the continent that produces the least carbon dioxide emissions.
"They have restricted capacity to take on other challenges, of which climate change is one ... In those places, there is very little room to maneuver," Thow said.
On the other end of the spectrum, Canada was deemed the least vulnerable to climate change effects; the United States ranked 12th.
The full report costs 950£ ($1,889) for commercial organizations and 500£ ($994) for noncommercial entities. Individual scorecards of specific countries cost 50£ ($99).
