Climate Change and Impacts
Nations, ecosystems and communities are already experiencing changes in climate that manifest differently, depending on physical, societal, and economic factors. The GCA Knowledge Portal presents risk assessments from research programs examining these factors.
Risks and Resilience
Researchers have devised several valuable tools to address risk components, using the basic concepts of Vulnerability, Hazards, Exposure and the need for adaptive capacity to respond to those risks. A few efforts stand out for their integration of complex components that the R4I team finds particularly compelling.
Climate-Driven Risks
The European Commission and its partners produce a climate change version of the INFORM risk index. The climate change research complements INFORM's Suite, presenting quantitative and analytical products to support decision-making on humanitarian crises and disasters. Further information on the INFORM Climate Change index can be found here.
Vulnerability and Readiness
The Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN) Country Index is part of the Environmental Change Initiative, based at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA. The ND-GAIN index illustrates which countries are best prepared to deal with global changes brought about by overcrowding, resource constraints and climate disruption. It supports decision-making aimed at supply chains, capital projects and community involvement.
Multisectoral Risk
A project developed by the International Institute for Applied System Analysis – called Integrated Solutions for Water, Energy, and Land – analyses climate-driven multisectoral risk and presents their work through the Global Hotspots Explorer. The Global Environment Facility and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization support the project. The Global Hotspots Explorer's multisectoral risk map presents information about hazards, vulnerabilities and risks arising from climate change and development activities.
Assessing Needs
Given the abundance of research on climate-driven risks, useful tools should distill that information into accessible summaries for regions, countries, and landscapes. With this goal in mind, development of these profiles will be expanded to include frameworks that enable an understanding of appropriate adaptation solutions
GCA Country Profiles
GCA researchers compiled available data from ND-GAIN, the World Bank and other reliable sources to summarize adaptation-relevant information about each country.