Monitoring exposure to climate-related hazards : Indicator methodology and key results

This paper supports countries in understanding the potential impact of climate-related natural hazards by assessing the exposure of people and assets to these hazards. It develops indicators of climate-related hazards and exposures for seven hazard types (extreme temperature, extreme precipitation, drought, wildfire, wind threats, river flooding and coastal flooding) and four exposure variables (cropland, forests, urban areas and population density). The paper presents the associated methodologies and discusses the global geospatial datasets used to construct the indicators. It shows that it is possible to develop exposure indicators for climate-related hazards with a global geographic coverage at the national and subnational levels. The results, presented for 52 IPAC countries, suggest that all countries are exposed to one or more climate-related natural hazards, but with significant differences in the occurrence and intensity of such hazards. The empirical evidence presented here points to the urgency to take strong climate change mitigation measures. It also highlights the need to accelerate efforts towards the global goal on adaptation to strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate change in the context of the Paris Agreement.