What Is Climate Risk?
Provided by: Probable Futures|Published on: April 11, 2025|Last updated: September 26, 2026
Grades: 9, 10, 11, 12
Type: Articles/Websites
Subjects: Biology, Geography, Health
Authors: Probable Futures
Location: Earth
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- This article defines climate risk and its three types, which become increasingly prominent as climate change increases and weather becomes more extreme.
- Students will learn about exposure risks, physical damage, and systemic response risk, and the factors that increase risks and vulnerability.
Teaching Materials
Positives
- The article takes time to talk about preparedness and how it can decrease one's vulnerability, which is great for students who feel anxious after discussing this topic.
- The article also links to helpful graphs and charts to help students analyze related data.
Prerequisites
- Students should understand climate change and how it may increase the frequency and/or severity of extreme weather events.
Differentiation & Implementation
- After reading this article, students can check out the Climate Risk Index 2025 to see how other countries are at risk for climate change-related weather.
- Students can research the extreme weather that threatens their region as climate change worsens and create a preparedness plan to decrease their vulnerability.
- To understand systemic response risks, students can analyze an extreme weather event from the recent past and the responses of human-made and natural systems to that event.
Climate risk is thoroughly defined, and its three types are discussed. This resource gets ahead of common misconceptions about climate and weather and rightly focuses on how global climate change can exacerbate local weather events. Featuring clear text and a link to the interactive Climate Futures maps, this resource is recommended for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
Learn about our review process →
