The impact of environmental and climate problems is not the same on different continents. 38 of 40 cities with the most affected climate change are in Africa. If we take a look at the 100 cities with the greatest impact, we see that 99 of them are in Asia. Of the 20 safest cities, 14 are in Europe.
Verisk Maplecroft published the research. They took the 576 largest cities globally and rated them on various aspects related to the environment and climate change, such as air and water quality, heat stress, and exposure to natural disasters. About 1.4 billion people live in cities with a “high or extremely high risk”.
Asia
The city most affected is Jakarta in Indonesia. Rising sea levels and land subsidence make Jakarta the “fastest sinking city in the world”. Parts of the metropolis are expected to be underwater by 2050. The worst affected country is India. Of the 100 most-affected cities, 43 are in India. 13 of them even reach a place in the top 20. It is mainly due to the poor air quality in the country.
Africa
African cities are much less affected by air pollution but are more at risk from climate change in itself. Looking at the risks posed by climate change alone, the continent has 38 of the 40 most-affected cities. Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, is the fourth most vulnerable city when it comes to climate change.
Europe
Europe is the “safest continent”. The safest European city is Oslo in Norway. But other Scandinavian cities such as Helsinki in Finland and Copenhagen in Denmark are also doing well. The greatest dangers for Europe are floods and seismic risks such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. We also have poor water quality.
And special: Glasgow, the city where the United Nations climate summit will take place in November, is worldwide the city that will be least affected by climate change. It is also the fourth safest city if we take environmental and climate impacts together.
