Introducing the Transnational Climate Impacts Index: Indicators of country-level exposure – methodology report

This methodology report from the Stockholm Environment Institute introduces the Transnational Climate Impacts (TCI) Index, a framework designed to quantify country-level exposure to climate impacts that occur in one location as a consequence of climate events elsewhere. The report details the selection of nine indicators across four risk pathways—biophysical, finance, people, and trade—plus a global context indicator, to identify how international interconnections and dependencies create climate-related risks for nations regardless of their internal vulnerability.

• The report defines 'transnational' climate impacts as those that "occur in one place as a consequence of climate impacts somewhere else," distinguishing them from direct impacts that occur within a country's own borders.
• The TCI Index is based on a framework of four climate risk pathways: the biophysical pathway (e.g., transboundary water), the finance pathway (e.g., FDI and remittances), the trade pathway (e.g., cereal import dependency), and the people pathway (e.g., asylum and migration).
• The TCI Index reveals that some countries with low direct vulnerability to climate change (as measured by the ND-GAIN index) have high exposure to transnational impacts. This is particularly evident in small European nations such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, Montenegro, Malta, Austria, and Lithuania, which make up 30% of the TCI Index's top 30 countries.
• The four highest-scoring countries on the TCI Index are all located in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.
• The 'Embedded water risk' indicator, developed using the IOTA model, identifies high exposure in countries including Afghanistan, China, India, Turkey, Nepal, Pakistan, and all five Central Asian states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan).
• The report identifies a strong correlation between the Human Development Index (HDI) and the ND-GAIN Index of climate vulnerability, suggesting that traditional vulnerability indices often reflect existing levels of human development rather than specific climate risks.
• The TCI Index shows significantly less correlation between exposure and wealth or human development compared to traditional vulnerability indices, indicating that transnational climate risk is more complex and country-specific.
• The methodology for the TCI Index uses a quantile method to group indicators into deciles, emphasizing relative positions. The final composite index is an unweighted average of the nine indicators, including countries that have data for at least seven of the nine indicators.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (n.d.). Introducing the Transnational Climate Impacts Index: Indicators of country-level exposure – methodology report. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/introducing-the-transnational-climate-impacts-index-indicators-of-country-level-exposure-methodology-report.pdf

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Introducing the Transnational Climate Impacts Index: Indicators of country-level exposure – methodology report. n.d. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/introducing-the-transnational-climate-impacts-index-indicators-of-country-level-exposure-methodology-report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Introducing the Transnational Climate Impacts Index: Indicators of country-level exposure – methodology report |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/introducing-the-transnational-climate-impacts-index-indicators-of-country-level-exposure-methodology-report.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitutendintroducing, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Introducing the Transnational Climate Impacts Index: Indicators of country-level exposure – methodology report}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/introducing-the-transnational-climate-impacts-index-indicators-of-country-level-exposure-methodology-report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }