Overview

City-Scale Climate Hazard Indicators under Warming Scenarios is a global climate data tool providing projected urban hazard indicators under different levels of global warming. It translates climate model outputs into city-relevant metrics linked to heat and precipitation risks. The tool is relevant for finance professionals assessing long-term physical climate risks to urban assets, infrastructure and populations.

Organisation behind the tool

The tool is developed and maintained by the World Resources Institute. It forms part of WRI’s wider climate risk and urban resilience research, drawing on peer-reviewed climate models and downscaled datasets to support evidence-based decision-making.

What the tool does

The tool provides city-level climate hazard indicators under multiple warming scenarios.

Key features include:

• Coverage of 996 global cities with populations above 500,000.
• Indicators modelled under historical conditions and 1.5°C, 2.0°C and 3.0°C global warming pathways.
• Heat-related metrics, such as extreme temperature days, heatwave duration, cooling degree days and wet-bulb temperature thresholds.
• Precipitation-related metrics, including extreme rainfall events, drought days and landslide risk indicators.
• Downloadable datasets with average values and probabilities of exceeding defined thresholds.
• City-level aggregation suitable for comparative and screening-level analysis rather than local micro-climate assessment.

Target audience

The primary audience includes:

• Policymakers and city planners working on climate adaptation and resilience.
• Researchers and analysts studying urban climate impacts.

Secondary audiences include:

• Financial institutions, investors and insurers.
• Development organisations and infrastructure planners.

Relevance to finance professionals

The tool supports several finance-related use cases:

Risk assessment

• Identification of physical climate risk exposure for urban real estate, infrastructure and municipal assets.
• Screening of heat and flood-related hazards across city portfolios.

ESG analysis

• Input into environmental risk disclosures and climate risk reporting.
• Contextual data for assessing climate vulnerability in emerging and developed markets.

Market and sector insights

• Assessment of climate stress on urban energy demand, water systems and transport infrastructure.
• Indirect insights into health, labour productivity and urban service pressures.

Investment context

• Long-term trend analysis aligned with warming pathways used in climate scenario analysis.
• Support for strategic asset allocation and stress testing under physical climate risk scenarios.