Morocco among countries vulnerable to climate finance challenges, says report 

Morocco ranked 124th out of 188 countries for vulnerability to climate finance risks, according to the Climate Finance Vulnerability Index, published by Columbia Climate School in New York and the Rockefeller Foundation. 

The report looks at how prepared countries are to deal with natural and human-made disasters and whether they can access enough funding to prevent and recover from them.

The index paints a worrying picture worldwide. More than two billion people live in what researchers call the “red zone”—places where the risk of disasters is extremely high. 

These 65 countries are mostly low- or middle-income, according to the OECD. Many of them are in Sub-Saharan Africa, home to over 1.2 billion people. 

Other high-risk countries include Pakistan and Bangladesh in Asia, several in Latin America and the Caribbean, and even Cyprus and Ukraine in Europe.

Experts warn that as the planet heats up, events like heatwaves and floods could kill over 14 million people and cause global economic losses topping $12.5 trillion by 2050. 

The World Bank has also estimated that without major investments, climate change could push up to 132 million more people into poverty by 2030.

Jeff Schlegelmilch, who leads the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia and helped create the index, said that climate shocks are happening more often and are more intense.

However, many of the most threatened countries are also deeply in debt, which limits their ability to get funding. 

He stressed that traditional aid systems, based on income levels or GDP per person, don’t capture the real and growing risks or the lack of access to capital needed to manage them.

Eric Bielawski from the Rockefeller Foundation explained that as governments prepare for the upcoming Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, there is still a huge gap between development goals and the money required to meet them. 

He said the index helps spark serious conversations about directing funds to the most fragile countries facing enormous challenges.

 By using the index, donors and investors can prioritize support for nations on the brink of crisis.

Gautam Jain, a lead researcher at Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy who contributed to the project, added that many donors want their climate adaptation funding to have the greatest impact. 

The index, he said, can guide them in deciding which countries could benefit most from their contributions, especially when several nations face similar disaster risks.