Nigeria has been ranked as the third most vulnerable country among 198 countries in the world.
According to the seventh annual Climate Change and Environmental Risks Atlas released by a global risk analytics company, Maplecroft, climate change and lack of food security multiply risks of conflict and violence in Nigeria and 31 other countries.
The report, which provides comparable risk data for 198 countries across 26 separate issues, including climate change vulnerability and food security, as well as emissions, ecosystem services, natural disasters and regulation, reaffirmed the findings of recent documents released by the United States’ Pentagon office that identified climate change as a ‘threat multiplier,’ which escalates the risk of conflicts and unrest.
The report’s Climate Change Vulnerability Index, which assesses the sensitivity of populations, the physical exposure of countries, and governmental capacity to adapt to climate change over the next 30 years, identified Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Nigeria, Chad, Haiti, Ethiopia, Philippines, Central African Republic and Eritrea as the ten countries most vulnerable to climate change, while the growth economies of Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Pakistan and Mozambique also featured in the ‘extreme risk’ category.
“One of the unifying characteristics of these economies identified by the CCERA is that they depend heavily on agriculture, with 65 per cent of their combined working population employed in the sector, while 28 per cent of their overall economic output relies on agricultural revenues.
“Maplecroft states that changing weather patterns are already impacting food production, poverty, migration and social stability – factors that significantly increase the risk of conflicts and instability in fragile and emerging states alike,” the organisation noted in a statement made available on its website.
The study added that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change figures estimated declines of up to 50 per cent for staples such as rice, wheat and maize in some locations over the next 35 years due to the impacts of climate change.
“This scenario is particularly significant for the 32 most vulnerable countries in the CCVI. Eleven of these are also classified as ‘extreme risk’ Maplecroft’s Food Security Risk Index, including: South Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia, Central African Republic, Eritrea, DR Congo, Sudan, Burundi and Afghanistan – countries where high levels of poverty, displacement, political violence and conflict already exist,” the report noted
Credit: Punch