Climate change experts have released maps of the world revealing how prepared different countries are to cope with the effects of climate change.
In the maps, 192 countries are ranked by their ‘vulnerability’ and ‘readiness’, to produce an overall judgement on their fate.
The results reveal that Scandinavian countries and the UK are among the most likely to survive - but areas of sub-Saharan Africa will be hardest hit.
London-based company The Eco Experts has revealed the countries best-equipped to cope with climate change on a map (shown). Scandinavian countries like Norway and Finland, and also the UK, score highly. Green is best, scaling down to red being worst
The maps were created by London-based company The Eco Experts, using data from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, known as the ND-Gain Index.
They took into account location, terrain, pollution rates and national resources when calculating which countries would be most affected.
Countries like Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark score well on the scale.
But places like Central America, Africa and India all appear at risk from natural disaster - and are poorly equipped to cope, said The Eco Experts.
Jon Whiting, of The Eco Experts warned: ‘Hurricanes, earthquakes, blizzards, droughts and flooding are all real dangers for some of these areas, and this is compounded by a lack of national strategy to counteract the effects.’
Burundi, Chad, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo produced some of the lowest scores, meaning these countries will be the biggest victims of weather disasters.
| Least affected | Score | Most affected | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 - Norway | 82.7 | 1 - Chad | 31.6 |
| 2 - New Zealand | 82.2 | 2 (tied) - Eritrea | 33.8 |
| 3 - Sweden | 81.6 | 2 (tied) - Burundi | 33.8 |
| 4 - Finland | 81.5 | 4 (tied) - Democratic Republic of Congo | 34.0 |
| 5 - Denmark | 81.4 | 4 (tied) - Central Africa Republic | 34.0 |
| 6 - Australia | 80.1 | 6 - Sudan | 35.5 |
| 7 - United Kingdom | 80.0 | 7 (tied) - Niger | 35.6 |
| 8 - United States | 78.9 | 7 (tied) - Haiti | 35.6 |
| 9 (tied) - Germany | 78.8 | 7 (tied) - Afghanistan | 35.6 |
| 9 (tied) - Iceland | 78.8 | 10 - Guinea-Bissau | 37.3 |
Most countries across Europe will be not be severely affected by climate change, according to the map. It takes into accounts many factors such as access to clean drinking water and the risk of heat waves
But places in sub-Saharan Africa will be most affected by a warming climate, while some countries in Africa like Bolivia will also also be severely affected by global warming
The map is based on data compiled by the ND-Gain index, which has been monitoring 45 internal and external indicators of climate change exposure of 192 countries since 1992.
The index is built on two variables; ‘vulnerability’ and ‘readiness’ for which a country gets a separate mark for each. These scores tally up to produce an overall total indicating how a particular nation would fare.
On the scale, the country best equipped to cope with the effects of climate change was Norway. In fact, Norway has topped the ranking every year since the Index began in 1995.
North America will also apparently be able to cope with the effects of climate change, thanks to high readiness scores for the USA and Canada. The results have been published every year since 1995 - with Norway coming top every single year
Asia has a wide range of scores for different countries, owing to the vastly different climates and levels of infrastructure in various countries. Surprisingly, Australia comes out fairly well in the map, despite being a notoriously hot country
Various islands such as Haiti will be severely affected by climate change, perhaps due to the effects of rising sea levels. Others like Barbados, though, will apparently avoid some of the worst effects.