Bangladesh atop climate risk chart

Climate change and food insecurity are ‘threat multipliers’, and 32 countries, including Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan, the Philippines and Sierra Leone dependent on farming, face an ‘extreme risk’ of conflict or civil unrest in the next 30 years, according to a study carried out by a global analytics firm. UK researcher Maplecroft, which carried out the study, said Bangladesh, Sierra Leone and South Sudan led a ranking of countries facing extreme risks as a result of climate change, exacerbating the chances of civil conflict. The Bath, England-based analyst, released the report of the study on Wednesday. The report mentioned that 32 countries out of 196 surveyed face that level of threat. Nigeria, Chad, Haiti, Ethiopia, the Philippines, the Central African Republic and Eritrea rounded out 10 most at risk. The threatened nations all depend heavily on agriculture, which accounts for 28 per cent of their combined economic output relying on farm-related revenue, and 65 per cent of the working population employed in the sector. The climate risk combined with food insecurity act as ‘threat multipliers’ escalating the danger of civil conflict.