New index ranks vulnerabilities of 188 nations to climate shocks

Source(s): Rockefeller Foundation

Drone view of the Nakhu River flooded and affected the riverbanks and homes during heavy rainfall in Lalitpur, Nepal (2024)

AP Tolang/Shutterstock

  • Columbia Climate School identifies 65 ‘Red Zone’ nations across four separate climate scenarios.
  • 43 nations in Sub-Saharan Africa, eight in Latin America and the Caribbean, six in Asia-Pacific, six in the Middle East, and two in Europe are most at-risk.
  • With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, the “Climate Finance Vulnerability Index” aims to help close the gap between risk assessments and funding allocations.

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Hòn đảo nhỏ lập kỷ lục dùng toàn bộ điện tái tạo 28 ngày liên tục

vietnamnet.vn

El Hierro, hòn đảo nhỏ trong quần đảo Canary của Tây Ban Nha, ghi dấu ấn lịch sử vào hè năm ngoái khi sử dụng toàn bộ nguồn năng lượng điện tái tạo trong 28 ngày liên tục.

El Hierro hiện là hòn đảo duy nhất trên thế giới đạt được kỳ tích như vậy. Theo báo cáo, hòn đảo 1,1 triệu năm tuổi này đang trên con đường đạt được khả năng tự cung tự cấp 100% năng lượng sạch nhờ vào gió và nước.

Nhà máy thủy điện Gorona del Viento là nguồn điện chính trên đảo, cung cấp năng lượng cho khoảng 11.000 cư dân. Nhà máy tận dụng địa hình của hòn đảo, kết hợp với những hồ nước ở những độ cao khác nhau tạo ra thủy điện và năng lượng gió từ ngoài khơi Đại Tây Dương.

Nhà máy điện hoạt động bằng cách khai thác năng lượng từ các tua-bin gió công nghiệp, được xây dựng trên sườn đồi. Vào những ngày gió lớn, công suất dư thừa từ trang trại gió 11,5 megawatt (MW), giúp bơm nước ngọt từ một hồ chứa nhỏ gần bến cảng của hòn đảo đến một lưu vực lớn hơn tại một miệng núi lửa cao khoảng 700m so với mực nước biển.

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A ‘Himalayan tsunami’ has just devastated Nepal. It should be a wake-up call

Independent.co.uk

Massive glacial bursts are becoming more frequent and more dangerous due to the climate crisis, experts tell Mukesh Pokhrel, warning: ‘They are not going to stop anytime soon’

Wednesday 16 July 2025 12:25 BST

Independent Climate

Up until a disastrous day earlier this month, more than 150 trucks crossed daily over a border bridge between Nepal and China. Known by locals as the Miteri Pul (Friendship Bridge), the Rasuwagadhi crossing served as the main trade route between the two countries, with over $50m of goods passing over it last year alone.

But on the 8 July, floodwaters tore through northern Nepal’s Rasuwa district, sweeping away parts of this critical border highway. According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Authority, seven people lost their lives, and 20 were missing, including six Chinese nationals.

The Chinese nationals were working on a 200 megawatt hydro project in the Tirsuli River, which was also damaged by the floods. Initial estimates suggest Nepal has sustained losses of over $100m in the incident as a whole.

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More than a third of this country’s population has applied to relocate

By Angus Watson, CNN Updated 4:50 AM EDT, Fri June 27, 2025

People swim in the lagoon in Funafuti, Tuvalu, on November 28, 2019.

People swim in the lagoon in Funafuti, Tuvalu, on November 28, 2019. Mario Tama/Getty ImagesSydney, AustraliaCNN — 

More than a third of the population of Tuvalu has applied to move to Australia, under a landmark visa scheme designed to help people escape rising sea levels.

The island nation – roughly halfway between Hawaii and Australia – is home to about 10,000 people, according to the latest government statistics, living across a clutch of tiny islets and atolls in the South Pacific.

With no part of its territory above six meters, it is one of the most at-risk places in the world to rising seas caused by climate change.

On June 16, Australia opened a roughly one-month application window for what it says is a one-of-a-kind visa offering necessitated by climate change. Under the new scheme, Australia will accept 280 visa winners from a random ballot between July and January 2026. The Tuvaluans will get permanent residency on arrival in Australia, with the right to work and access public healthcare and education.

More than 4,000 people have applied under the scheme, according to official figures seen by CNN.

“The opening of the Falepili Mobility Pathway delivers on our shared vision for mobility with dignity, by providing Tuvaluans the opportunity to live, study and work in Australia as climate impacts worsen,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement.

CNN has reached out to the Tuvalu government.

According to Tuvalu’s Prime Minister Feleti Teo, more than half of Tuvalu will be regularly inundated by tidal surges by 2050. By 2100, 90% of his nation will be regularly under water, he says.

Fongafale, the nation’s capital, is the largest and most populated islet in Tuvalu’s main atoll, Funafuti. It has a runway-like strip of land just 65 feet (20 meters) wide in some places.

“You can put yourself in my situation, as the prime minister of Tuvalu, contemplating development, contemplating services for the basic needs of our people, and at the same time being presented with a very confronting and disturbing forecast,” Teo told the United Nations Oceans Conference this month in Nice, France.

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China is Southeast Asia’s biggest public funder of clean energy with US$2.7bn in investment

eco-business.com

Indonesia received the most funding from China over the last decade, according to a new report by Zero Carbon Analytics. But uncertainties caused by US-driven tariff plans could see Southeast Asian countries retract green investments, said an analyst.

Cirata floating solar Indonesia
China’s PowerChina Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited constructed the Cirata floating solar plant in West Java, Indonesia. Image: PLN Nusantara

By Hannah Alcoseba Fernande June 4, 2025

China is the leading source of public clean energy investments in Southeast Asia over the last decade, channeling over US$ 2.7 billion into projects across the region, according to a report by international research organisation Zero Carbon Analytics.

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Nước hồ thủy điện Hòa Bình liên tục xuống thấp đến mức kỷ lục

baotintuc.com Thứ Bảy, 07/06/2025 19:49 | 

Từ tháng 3/2025, mực nước hồ thủy điện Hòa Bình liên tục xuống thấp đến mức kỷ lục, nhiều nơi trên lòng hồ cạn trơ đáy. Điều này đã ảnh hưởng nghiêm trọng đối với đời sống và sản xuất của người dân tại các xã ven hồ thuộc huyện Đà Bắc.

 Đặc biệt, các hộ nuôi cá lồng, các bến cảng, các điểm du lịch cộng đồng, du lịch nghỉ dưỡng ở các xã Vầy Nưa, Hiền Lương và Tiền Phong của huyện Đà Bắc đang bị ảnh hưởng nặng nề do môi trường nước thay đổi bất thường.

Chú thích ảnh
Hình ảnh lòng hồ Hòa Bình khi mực nước xuống thấp kỷ lục đã làm những dãy đảo đá trơ trọi xơ xác trên nền màu nước đục ngầu.
Chú thích ảnh
Nhiều năm qua, hồ Hòa Bình đang đối mặt với nguy cơ sụt giảm lượng nước nghiêm trọng vào mùa khô điều này đang gây ra nhiều tác động tiêu cực đến đời sống và sản xuất của người dân.

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A “Turning Point”: How International Courts Are Addressing The Climate Emergency

climatecourt.com

Dana Drugmand May 15, 2025

A "Turning Point": How International Courts Are Addressing The Climate Emergency
Credit: Ben Bohane

Co-published with One Earth Now

The climate crisis is the single greatest global public health threat of this century, health professionals say. Human rights experts warn it poses an unprecedented risk to human rights. For the world’s poor and most vulnerable people and communities on the frontlines of climate impacts like rising seas, it is an existential crisis threatening their very survival.

Yet the global response to what scientists say is undoubtedly a global emergency has fallen woefully short, through a United Nations governance framework that essentially rests upon voluntary pledges that nations of the world submit – called Nationally Determined Contributions – to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, leading climate experts wrote to top UN officials calling for reform of the international climate negotiations, arguing that the “current structure simply cannot deliver the change at exponential speed and scale, which is essential to ensure a safe climate landing for humanity.”

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Emergency reserves, high prices, rationing. How did Japan’s rice crisis get this far?

Japan’s agriculture minister has resigned because of political fallout over his comment that he “never had to buy rice” because he got it from supporters as gifts.Read More

Japan’s agriculture minister has resigned because of political fallout over his comment that he “never had to buy rice” because he got it from supporters as gifts. (Produced by Elaine Carroll)Read More

A rice field in Mito, Japan, where farmers are being encouraged to grow more of the staple crop to make up for shortages on store shelves, on Wednesday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Elaine Kurtenbach)

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What the blackout in Spain, Portugal says about renewables

DW.com Holly Young 05/20/2025May 20, 2025

The recent power outage in Spain and Portugal has raised questions about the stability of solar and wind power. It also reignited the debate around the phasing out of nuclear energy.

People walk down the street between flashlights and light reflections during the power outage that affects Spain on April 28, 2025

At 12:33 p.m. on April 28, swathes of Spain and parts of Portugal were plunged into darkness: trains were stranded, phone and internet coverage faltered, and ATMs stopped working.

The electricity blackout across the Iberian Peninsula is believed to be one of the worst in Europe’s history.

While most power was restored by the next morning, weeks later the investigation into the blackout is ongoing.

Last week, Spain’s energy minister Sara Aagesen said so far it was clear an abrupt loss of power at a substation in Granada, followed by failures in Badajoz and Seville, led to a loss of 2.2 gigawatts of electricity, but that the precise cause was unknown.

In the wait for answers, some have pointed the finger at Spain’s high reliance on renewables and reignited debates over plans to phase out nuclear power by 2035.

Are renewables to blame for the blackout?

Tiếp tục đọc “What the blackout in Spain, Portugal says about renewables”

Number of internally displaced people tops 80 million for first time

“Internal displacement refers to the forced movement of people within the country they live in.” 

Internal-displacement.org

     –  83.4 million people were living in internal displacement at the end of 2024, more than twice as many as only six years ago (2018).

     –  90 per cent had fled conflict and violence. In Sudan, conflict led to 11.6 million internally displaced people (IDPs), the most ever for one country. Nearly the entire population of the Gaza Strip remained displaced at the end of the year.

     –  Disasters triggered nearly twice as many movements in 2024 as the annual average over the past decade. The 11 million disaster displacements in the United States were the most ever recorded for a single country. 

GENEVA, Switzerland – The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) reached 83.4 million at the end of 2024, the highest figure ever recorded, according to the Global Report on Internal Displacement 2025 published today by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). This is equivalent to the population of Germany, and more than double the number from just six years ago.  

“Internal displacement is where conflict, poverty and climate collide, hitting the most vulnerable the hardest,” said Alexandra Bilak, IDMC director“These latest numbers prove that internal displacement is not just a humanitarian crisis; it’s a clear development and political challenge that requires far more attention than it currently receives.”

Tiếp tục đọc “Number of internally displaced people tops 80 million for first time”

What Happened to Forests in 2024?

Fires Drove Record-breaking Tropical Forest Loss in 2024

A new analysis of 2024 tree cover loss data, released today on the Global Forest Review, shows record-breaking loss caused by devastating fires.

2024 had the most tropical primary forest loss since our records began two decades ago — disappearing at a rate of 18 football (soccer) fields per minute, nearly double that of 2023.
– Almost half of this loss was due to fires, around 5 times more than a typical year in the tropics. Latin America was particularly hard hit with major fires across Brazil, Bolivia and numerous other countries.
– Fires also continued to drive tree cover loss outside of the tropics, with high levels of loss once again in Russia and Canada. Overall, the world lost an area of forests nearly the size of Panama.

This data must be a wake-up call for global policies and finance that incentivize keeping forests standing. Read our analysis for more findings from the University of Maryland GLAD Lab’s annual data 

Another year, another rise in food insecurity – including famine

UN.org

Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese have sought refuge in Chad due to the ongoing conflict and resulting food shortages.

© WFP/Lena von Zabern

Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese have sought refuge in Chad due to the ongoing conflict and resulting food shortages.

 Humanitarian Aid

In July 2024, famine was detected in the Sudan’s Zamzam IDP camp. In the following months, the official alert expanded to other camps in Darfur and Western Nuba Mountains. From December until now, famine has been confirmed in five other areas of the war-torn country. A further 17 areas are at risk. 

It is the first time since 2017 that a famine has been declared anywhere on Earth.

In the 20 months since the war between rival militaries erupted, 13 million Sudanese have been forcibly displaced and over 30.4 million are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, according to UN estimates.

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As Saltwater Intrudes More of Mekong Delta, Durian Farmers Struggle to Stay Afloat

Saigoneer.com

Friday, 25 April 2025. Written by Minh Ha and Lue Palmer. Photos by Minh Ha. Top graphic by Ngàn Mai.

AAANguyễn Văn Quại, 63, walked slowly on the muddy dirt path in his yard, his hands clasped behind his back. He stopped beside a tree split in half, its branches dipping into the stagnant water of a narrow moat, and gestured towards the rest of his leafless crop — their trunks yellow, their bark cracked and brittle.

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.

Nguyễn Văn Quại points to his durian trees in Ngũ Hiệp.

For decades, Quại has called Ngũ Hiệp home. The small island on the Mekong River in Tiền Giang Province is less than two hours inland from the sea. His family first farmed rice but turned to durian, a more lucrative crop, in the early 1990s. Now, more than 200 trees stand in his yard, their thorny fruit bringing in hundreds of millions of VND.

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Pest Migration from Southeast Asia Threatens Crops in Southern China, Research Found

laotiantime.com By Kheuakham Chanlivong May 8, 2025

Rice field (Photo: 123RF)

Southern China is facing a surge in agricultural pests migrating from neighboring Southeast Asian countries, including Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia. This pest migration, driven by climate-related factors, poses a growing threat to regional food security.

recent study highlights the role of extreme weather in this phenomenon. Researchers found that the ongoing El Niño event, marked by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific, is contributing to hotter and more humid conditions, which are ideal for pest breeding.

In addition to favorable breeding conditions, strong seasonal winds are carrying these pests into Southern China, facilitating their rapid spread and increasing the risk of crop damage. 

While wind is a major factor in their movement, scientists note that insect migration is also influenced by environmental stressors such as extreme heat, drought, and the presence of predators.

Insects migrate in response to immediate environmental cues, the study explains. They may move to escape harsh conditions, find food, avoid overcrowding, or locate new habitats suitable for reproduction.

The problem isn’t confined to China. In Laos, climate change is also taking a toll. The country has experienced record-breaking heatwaves, reaching 43.2 degrees Celsius in 2024, along with persistent water shortages and weakened agricultural infrastructure. 

These factors have led to crop failures, livestock losses, and growing food insecurity. An estimated 82 percent of households lack access to safe water, compounding the crisis for rural communities.

Globally, climate change is expected to worsen food insecurity. Rising temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns are already making it more difficult to grow crops in traditional farming regions. 

By 2100, nearly 30 percent of the world’s food crops may be exposed to climate conditions they have never encountered before. While much of the focus is on staple crops like rice and wheat, many other plants grown in equatorial regions could also suffer under the changing climate.

Sổ tay – Hệ thống cảnh báo sớm hiểm họa tự nhiên tại Việt Nam

Cuốn “Sổ tay hệ thống cảnh báo sớm hiểm họa tự nhiên tại Việt Nam” nhằm cung cấp một cách khoa học và hệ thống thông tin về các loại hình hiểm họa tự nhiên (bao gồm: hiểm họa khí tượng – thủy văn và hiểm họa địa vật lý), đồng thời đề cập việc quản lý rủi ro thảm họa tiếp cận thông qua “Hệ thống cảnh báo sớm đa thiên tai tại Việt Nam”, qua đó góp phần nâng cao hiểu biết và nhận thức của đội ngũ cán bộ Hội, các cấp chính quyền, các tổ chức cộng đồng và nhân dân về thiên tai, thảm họa 

Tải báo cáo tại đây: http://www.dmc.gov.vn/chi-tiet-tai-lieu/so-tay—he-thong-canh-bao-som-hiem-hoa-tu-nhien-tai-viet-nam-doc628.html?lang=vi-VN