Over 95% of the 234 cities most affected by climate change and considered ‘extreme risk’ in the CCVI are in Africa and Asia, compounding fears that the world’s poorest countries with the greatest rates of urbanisation are set to pay the highest price of climate change. The scale of the risk could threaten the capital flows that have streamed into these markets to take advantage of burgeoning economies, emerging consumers and cheap labour.

At the other end of the spectrum, 86% of the 292 ‘low risk’ cities are located in Europe and the Americas. The five cities considered most insulated from the impacts of climate change in the CCVI, Glasgow, Belfast, Edinburgh, Preston and Middlesbrough, are all located in the UK.

84% of world’s fastest growing cities face ‘extreme’ climate change risks