Climate change will impact almost every region of the planet in the coming times and the impact can be seen in terms of unpredictable and inclement weather, which would impact crop yields. It is important for governments to be ready to combat these changes as there could be food scarcity and people in the coastal regions would face frequent flooding. Climate scientists found that nations around the world that are at high risk of catastrophic impacts of climate change are among the poorest.

Now, a global league table has been developed that can help identify countries most vulnerable to climate change. Researchers from the University of Notre Dame are behind this unique global league table. The table, dubbed as the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index (ND-GAIN), is capable of figuring out a nation’s ability to deal with climate change.

The index can measure a country’s exposure to climate stress, adaptive capacity and sensitivity to climate shocks’ effects. After that, it calculates how a nation’s sources would be impacted due to change in climate.

The University of Notre Dame also used the index to find the five worst performing countries in the world: Chad, Eritrea, Sudan, Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. On the other side, the nations that are performing better than expectations are Norway, New Zealand, Britain, Germany and Denmark, as per the index.

In December last year, world leaders gathered in Paris for a climate summit where they concluded that reducing greenhouse gases is not a solution to slow down climate change. They agreed to a fact that it is important to look for a way to live with a warming earth. They also said that poorer countries are not able to fight global warming alone, and they will need support.

“Paris was wonderful, but what’s really important now is what happens on the ground. The true yardstick of success is in these highly vulnerable countries”, said Koko Warner from the United Nations University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security.