{"html":"

What is Climate Vulnerability?

A country’s vulnerability to climate change can be measured by the climate vulnerability score, a number between 0 and 1. This number indicates a country’s exposure, sensitivity and ability to adapt to the negative impact of climate change. The score assesses vulnerability by analyzing six essential sectors: food, water, health, ecosystem services, human habitat, and infrastructure.

Food
\nThis measures how secure a country is regarding its food supply. It looks at factors like food access, agricultural productivity, nutrition, and reliance on food imports.

Water
\nThis assesses a country’s vulnerability to water-related risks, such as water scarcity, droughts, and floods. It considers factors like water availability, water stress, water quality, and how well the country manages water resources.

Health
\nThis measures a country’s vulnerability to health risks and its ability to handle them. It considers factors like healthcare access, disease prevalence, healthcare infrastructure, and public health services.

Ecosystems
\nThis assesses a country’s vulnerability regarding its natural ecosystems and biodiversity. It looks at factors like deforestation, habitat loss, species extinction rates, and ecosystem degradation.

Human Habitat
\nThis focuses on the vulnerability of human settlements to natural hazards like earthquakes, hurricanes, and sea-level rise. It considers factors like population density in hazard-prone areas, exposure to coastal hazards, and urban planning measures.

Infrastructure
\nThis evaluates a country’s vulnerability concerning its built infrastructure, including transportation, energy, and communication systems. It looks at factors like infrastructure quality, exposure to natural hazards, and the country’s ability to adapt and recover from disruptions.

How is the degree of inequality calculated?

To assess the degree of inequality between two countries we employed the following methodology:

Degree = ((X-Y)/(X+Y) / max((X’-Y’)/(X’+Y’))) * 45°

Where:\nX = Country X (CO2 Emissions / Vulnerability Score)

Y = Country Y (CO2 Emissions / Vulnerability Score)

max = Among all the dataset, it is taking the maximum difference possible of the first expression (X-Y)/(X+Y)

X’ and Y’ = All countries available in the dataset

By multiplying the result by 45º, we convert the outcome into an angle ranging between 0º and 45º. This allows for the representation of the degree of inequality between the two countries.

Which datasets are used?

Climate Vulnerability

ND GAIN index - vulnerability
\nUniversity of Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index Country Index Technical Report, Chen, C. et al, 2015. https://gain.nd.edu/our-work/country-index/

From the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index (ND-GAIN) Country Index, we focus on data on a country’s current vulnerability to climate disruptions. ND-GAIN assesses vulnerability by analyzing six essential sectors: food, water, health, ecosystem services, human habitat, and infrastructure. Each sector is represented by six indicators, grouped into three components: the sector’s exposure to climate-related hazards, its sensitivity to those hazards, and its adaptive capacity to cope with or adapt to the impacts. It is important to note that the smallest value of vulnerability is higher than 0, as all countries are vulnerable to climate change.

Emissions

PRIMAP, 2023:
\nGütschow, J.; Pflüger, M. (2023): The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series v2.4.2 (1750-2021). doi:10.5281/zenodo.7585420.

World Development Indicators:
\nThe World Bank, temporal coverage 1960-2022, 2023. https://doi.org/10.57966/6rwy-0b07

To determine the historical and annual CO2 emissions for all countries, we utilized data from the PRIMAP dataset. We extracted CO2 emissions specifically from the “National Total Excluding LULUCF” category (M.0.EL) for all countries included in the dataset. This means that we refer to an indication of emissions within a country, rather than emissions generated by the country outside its borders.\nTo determine the historical CO2 emissions from the start of the industrial revolution until the latest available data, we summed up these emissions for each country from 1850 to 2021.\nFor the per head CO2 emissions data from the World Development Indicator database was also included. For the countries Andorra, Comoros, Maldives, Seychelles and Timor-Leste, the annual and per head CO2 emissions for 2018 were used, as no data were available for 2019.

About the project

The Scale is an interactive data tool to calculate and visualize climate inequality. Following the principle of a traditional scale it shows how differently nations are vulnerable to climate change and how unequally they have contributed to global CO2 emissions.

The scale is part of the NOT JUST CELSIUS project which is pushing for a fundamental shift in how we protect our planet and its people: Visionary youth from around the world are taking governments to court to force ambitious climate action and greater climate justice. For the first time in history, this fight has reached the world’s highest court (World Court).

Find more information on our website
\nnotjustcelsius.com

and follow us on
\nInstagram

Our scientific partner Climate Analytics gGmbH supports us by verifying the data and developing the calculation for the data visualization.

Credits

A project of
\nInteractive Media Foundation

Scientific Partner
\nClimate Analytics

Concept and Design
\nPaul Baule, Kaj Schlicht

Producer
\nKaj Schlicht

UX Design and Programming
\nMiek Dunbar

Design Consulting
\nRegine Abos

","css":{"code":"","map":null},"head":""}