Maplecroft, a global risks advisory firm based in the UK, recently released a Climate Change Vulnerability Index ２０１１, evaluating １7０ countries as a tool for companies to be able to assess economic risk due to global warming.

The countries deemed to have the highest vulnerability in the next ３０ years were
Bangladesh, followed by India, Madagascar, Nepal, Mozambique, the Philippines, Haiti, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and Myanmar. To arrive at their rankings, the analysts included such factors as poverty levels, exposure to climate-related events, ability to respond to such disasters, and reliance on agricultural land that could be prone to droughts and flooding.

Nirmal Hari Rajbhandari - Director General, Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, Nepal (M): The extreme weather events are increasing. The pattern of monsoons is also changing. The number of glacier lakes are increasing. And the glacier is retreating. So it has a lot of negative impacts on water resources, in agriculture, and in different fields.

VOICE: The next category of “high risk” nations included China, Brazil, and Japan, while Russia, the US, Germany, France, and the UK were rated as “medium risk” countries. The report also pointed out that countries considered to have the most potential for future expansion are also among the most threatened in terms of the safety of their populations, ecosystems, and business environments. These include the Philippines, Âu Lạc (Vietnam) and Pakistan.

Dr. M. Mohsin Iqbal - Head of Agriculture Section, Global Change Impact Studies Centre, Pakistan (M): I come from Pakistan, where we had the worst floods in history. In the history of Pakistan, we did not have so much floods. They devastated infrastructure, buildings, rails, roads, and they incurred a heavy loss to the economy of Pakistan.

Nirmal Hari Rajbhandari - Director General, Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, Nepal (M): Global warming is the main cause. Livestock is also one of the main causes, because the methane is also one of the greenhouse gases which is immediate from these livestock activities.

VOICE: Our thanks Maplecroft, for alerting us to the impacts of climate change that are affecting countries throughout the international community. May your report prompt actions to protect the future of all world citizens especially through the rapidly mitigating plant-based diet.

During an October ２００9 videoconference in Formosa (Taiwan), Supreme Master Ching Hai made an urgent plea to address the main cause of climate change and avoid further global devastation.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/356041,india-and-bangladesh-extreme-risk-from-climate-change.html
http://www.maplecroft.com/about/news/ccvi.html