Sustainability Language

Climate & Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Climate vulnerability

The propensity of people, ecosystems or assets to be adversely affected by climate hazards, combining sensitivity and adaptive capacity.

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Definition

In the IPCC framework, vulnerability is the propensity or predisposition to be adversely affected, encompassing sensitivity to harm and the capacity (or lack of capacity) to cope and adapt. Together with hazard and exposure, it is one of the three determinants of climate risk.

References

CLIMAAX (EU)

IPCC 2022 definition; hazard × exposure × vulnerability risk framing

Overview

What it means

Two communities facing the same hazard can experience very different risk because their underlying vulnerability differs.

How it is used

Vulnerability assessments combine socioeconomic, institutional and biophysical indicators to target adaptation; climate vulnerability indices operationalise the concept for ranking places or populations.

Why it matters

It shifts climate policy from hazards alone to the social conditions that turn hazards into disasters, aligning with UNDRR disaster-risk framing.

Review

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