Two thirds of states seen highly vulnerable to climate change by 2030

Two thirds of states seen highly vulnerable to climate change by 2030The "Climate Vulnerability Monitor", backed by leading climate experts, assesses 184 countries according to the estimated effects of climate change in four key areas: health; weather disasters; human habitat loss from rising seas and desertification; and economic stresses on natural resources and other relevant sectors.

States are judged to have low, moderate, high, severe or acute vulnerability for each of these, and then given an overall rating.

By 2030, if no action is taken, 132 countries will register an overall factor of high vulnerability or above, the report says. Fifteen states, most of them in Africa, are already acutely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and that group will expand to 54 nations over the next two decades.