Methodology
To create a list of 20 countries most affected by climate change, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed reports from the annual Climate Risk Index, published annually by Germanwatch, an environmental organization that promotes global sustainability and equity. The CRI measures and analyzes the effects of climate from extreme weather events.Â
For each of the last 16 years, Germanwatch has listed the 10 countries and regions most affected by climate change, along with measures of the destruction, based on data available at the time, which is always two years previous to the year of its report. In 2020 and 2021, it also published lists of the most affected countries over the course of two decades: in 2021 the list covers the years 2010 to 2019, and in 2020 the list covers the years between 1999 and 2000. To be considered, all countries needed to be on the CRI multi-decade lists, or be among the most affected countries between 2016 and 2019.
Population data is from the World Bank and is for the most recent year available. CO2 emissions in million metric tons for 2020 per country as well as the share of world emissions came from the European Commission’s Database for Global Atmospheric Research.
