Risk identification and assessment

Nearly 1 in 5 people globally are at high risk from climate hazards, living in areas exposed to extreme weather with limited capacity to recover from its impacts.

The State of the Climate in the South-West Pacific 2025 report documents how the region had its second warmest year on record (behind 2024), with extreme weather causing widespread disruption, economic damage, and loss of life.

The vast ocean expanse in the South-West Pacific is becoming hotter and more acidic, harming local economies and marine ecosystems, whilst rising sea levels threaten vulnerable coastal communities and low-lying island nations.

The frequency of extreme weather events can be predicted more accurately than presently possible by combining artificial intelligence (AI) with physical climate modelling, using a protocol called rare-event sampling.

In some parts of Southern Europe, more than half of the land has burned at least once in the last two decades.

This study addresses a gap in regional-scale debris flow research, which has traditionally focused on susceptibility mapping without adequately capturing frequency and magnitude — key elements needed for effective disaster mitigation.

A new interactive platform mapping sea-level change across Africa reveals how coastal impacts vary dramatically from place to place — reshaping how scientists and policymakers understand risk along some of the continent’s most vulnerable shorelines.