SEI’s Richard Klein in Climate Home News: Defining vulnerability is a “political question”

In the latest Intergovernmental IPCC report on climate impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, Afghanistan, Haiti, Mozambique, Nigeria and Somalia are labelled “very high” when it comes to vulnerability, while India, Pakistan and the Philippines are in the “high” bracket. A total of 1.8 billion to 2 billion people are estimated to live in countries with low or very low vulnerability, such as Australia, Canada, Sweden and the UK.

Defining vulnerability is “a political question”, SEI Senior Research Fellow Richard J. T. Klein told Climate Home News, arguing that there is “no [single] truth when it comes to vulnerability because there are many different possible interpretations. Indices can tell you whatever you want them to tell you.”