OCHA: Humanitarian Implications of Climate Change: Mapping Emerging Trends and Risk Hotspots for Humanitarian Actors

Human-induced climate change is already modifying patterns of extreme weather such as flooding, cyclones and drought. In many cases, it is making these hazards more intense, more frequent, less predictable and/or longer lasting. This magnifies the risk of disasters everywhere, but especially in those parts of the world where there are already high levels of human vulnerability.

As a result, OCHA's Policy Development and Studies Branch and CARE's Poverty, Environment and Climate Change Centre commissioned a research project to compare how current high-risk areas for humanitarian disasters might be affected by climate change over the next 20-30 years.

Using a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) mapping approach, the team looked at specific hazards associated with climate change – specifically: floods, cyclones and droughts – and placed them in relation to factors influencing human vulnerability. The results identify hotspots of high humanitarian risk under changing climatic conditions.

The complexity of climate change science and measurements of human vulnerability means the results should be interpreted as indicative only. Further research and refinement is necessary, particularly at the regional and local levels.

Download the full report from Reliefweb.