Giving Compass' Take:

• Brookings illustrates a new study by Maplecroft showing how the fastest growing cities in Africa will be vulnerable to climate change over the next few decades.

• What can international organizations do to help mitigate the danger to these urban areas and others? How might economic development and clean energy be connected?

• Here's how we can step up investments to tackle climate change.

According to a study by the strategic consulting firm Maplecroft, the fastest growing cities in Africa are among the most susceptible to the threat of climate change over the next 30 years. Figure 1 combines the annual population growth of over 1800 cities from the U.N. World Urbanization Prospects database with a proprietary Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) to create a scatter plot showing the relationship between population growth and climate change.

The CCVI evaluates social, economic, and environmental factors to assess vulnerabilities across three core areas: exposure to climate-related natural disasters and sea-level rise; human sensitivity (in terms of population patterns, development, natural resources, agricultural dependency, and conflicts), and resilience (measuring the adaptive capacity of a country’s government and infrastructure) to combat climate change.

Read the full article about climate change vulnerability and urban population growth by Nirav Patel at Brookings.