Climate change is the ultimate threat multiplier. It will aggravate fragility, contribute to social upheaval and even violent conflicts. The problem is the seven compound risks that emerge when the impacts of climate change interact with problems that many weak states are already facing. Single-sector interventions alone will not suffice to deal with the systemic nature of compound climate-fragility risks.

Allowing global temperatures to rise 1.5 degrees Celsius beyond pre-industrial averages could cost the global economy $12 trillion by 2050, or 10 percent of the entire global GDP over that period, according to a new report from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a group of four dozen highly vulnerable countries.

Climate change poses numerous challenges for international river basins that are likely to intensify in the decades to come. These challenges will have significant socio-economic and political repercussions. Ensuring sustainable development and political stability in these basins, therefore requires effective adaptation to the impacts of climate change. To overcome existing shortcomings and strengthen adaptive capacities, the water (cooperation) and climate communities should engage proactively and seek to create synergies between their instruments. Foreign policymakers should support them in this process.

This briefing paper, in particular, starts by outlining some of the most important climate-fragility risks in Asia. Against this backdrop, the results of an online survey of stakeholders in Asia are presented to provide some understanding and a snapshot of how these stakeholders perceive and understand climate-fragility risks. Subsequently, the paper presents a Climate-Fragility Risk Index as a means of comprehensively presenting various climate-fragility risk indicators that help compare countries and understand factors behind their fragility state.