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.
Published on October 07, 2022
In series:OECD Environment Working Papersview more titles