By Nives Dolšak and Aseem Prakash
Ranking possible destinations by their vulnerability to climate-driven disaster.
After the United States announced they are withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, many commentators expressed the hope that firms will be able to make up for the policy slack. One such firm is Amazon that touts its environmental credentials. These include hosting rooftop solar systems, supporting Clean Power Plan, and committing to 100 percent renewable energy for its web farms. But, when soliciting HQ2 proposals, it has not listed climate considerations.
Not surprisingly, city rankings produced by various analysts fail to account for climate change vulnerability — an issue that will affect the viability of any business. Including climate vulnerability data from FEMA, we identify two cities that feature in the top 10 in both rankings. We hope this piece will motivate any company scouting for a new location to look into the climate vulnerability dimensions.
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