Climate change vulnerability index case study for the Republic of Moldova

Abstract

The assessment of vulnerability to climate change focuses on identifying how threats from climate change can affect the ecological and socio-economic environment. This assessment takes into account the adaptation capacity and resilience of different institutions and key sectors to climate change and how climate change and other risks are reflected in the socio-economic and environmental dimensions at national, regional, and local level. Indicators of vulnerability to climate change can be aggregated by weighting to obtain Climate Vulnerability Index. The authors propose a new algorithm for calculating the Climate Vulnerability Index for the Republic of Moldova’s administrativeterritorial units as a composite index that includes three pillars:exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Each of the pillars includes a set of sub-indices, which in turn contain of several indicators.