Abstract
The concept of risk remains a key aspect in the recently published 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC risk diagram shows risk as a function of three elements: hazard, exposure and vulnerability. While this relationship is undisputed, simply superimposing the individual risk factors as presented in the IPCC diagram does not do justice to the underlying definitions of the terms. This diagram can thus confuse more than it clarifies and, we argue, should be reconsidered.
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The authors kindly acknowledge the support of Kati Heinrich for the graphic design of Fig. 1.
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Fuchs, S., Karagiorgos, K., Keiler, M. et al. The ambiguity in IPCC’s risk diagram raises explanatory challenges. Nat Hazards (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-024-06643-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-024-06643-9