Climate Change Vulnerability and Conflict: Climate Debate Mapping with Twitter.

Climate vulnerability, the degree in which a system is able to cope with the adverse effects of climate change, is contested within the climate debate. Countries categorized as ‘particularly vulnerable’ are eligible for funding, whilst a common method to assess this has not yet been established. Vulnerability indices employ a variety of variables and metrics to output lists of countries ranked from most to least vulnerable. In addition, vulnerability has been connected to conflict, giving rise to its prominent coverage in the news and scholarly publications. This paper sets out to critically analyze the assessment of vulnerability by triangulating three vulnerability indices on the level of their variables, methods and ranked country lists, followed by a timely view on vulnerability with Twitter. A set of climate change tweets on which we perform co-hashtag analysis, provides an alternative perspective on the possible victims of environmental change. Here, an ecology of sub-issues illustrates the current state of climate action and adaptation, and possible future climate victims.