Adapting climate change challenge: A new vulnerability assessment framework from the global perspective

Abstract

Climate change has caused worldwide concern due to its adverse effects on the global ecosystem, economy and society. In this study, a new integrated framework was proposed for assessing the national vulnerability to climate change by considering both the sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Then, a first assessment of the spatial-temporal change in national vulnerability from 1996 to 2008 was provided from the global perspective. Finally, 171 countries were grouped, and hotspots of climate change were identified. Based on the results, the earth is more vulnerable than invulnerable, and the average rate of increase in the vulnerability index from 1996 to 2008 was 0.30%. African countries were identified as hotspots of vulnerability and instability in the changing climate, and 8 groups were clustered based on the key influencing index of 171 countries. The results of this new framework are consistent with the previous Fragile State Index and World Risk Index but provide more details and quantitative vulnerability analysis. The methods and results presented in this paper could be used as references for climate change adaption and policy at the global scale.