Hyderabad: 

Extreme weather events reportedly caused more than 7 lakh deaths in a span of 30 years. According to the Climate Risk Index, published by Germanwatch, more than 7,65,000 people lost their lives worldwide due to more than 9,400 extreme weather events between 1993 and 2022.

Based on extreme weather event data from the International Disaster Database (Em-dat) and socio-economic data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the newest edition of the Climate Risk Index analyses the extent to which countries have been affected by climate-related extreme weather events.

As per the report, such events also caused economic damages worth $4.2 trillion-- adjusted for inflation. Among EU states, Italy, Spain, and Greece are reportedly among the ten most affected countries worldwide over the past three decades.

Countries most affected by climate-related extreme weather events

The Climate Risk Index for countries is based on six indicators, which include fatalities, people affected (injured and otherwise adversely affected), and economic losses (in absolute and relative terms). According to the report, the countries most affected by such events between 1993 and 2022 are as follows:

Dominica

China

Honduras

Myanmar

Italy

India

Greece

Spain

Vanuatu

Philippines

In 2022 alone, the countries most affected by climate-related extreme weather events are as follows:

Pakistan

Belize

Italy

Greece

Spain

Puerto Rico

The United States of America

Nigeria

Portugal

Bulgaria

Germanwatch says that the report is based on the best publicly available historical data set on the impacts of extreme weather events. Since such events and their impacts are often underreported in Global South countries because of data quality, coverage challenges, and data gaps, the ranking may less accurately capture these impacts and how Global South countries are affected, it adds.

Laura Schaefer, co-author of the Climate Risk Index and Head of the International Climate Policy Division at Germanwatch, emphasised that the climate crisis is becoming a global security risk and must be tackled with bold multilateral actions.

"The past three decades show that countries in the Global South are particularly affected by extreme weather events. If the data from these countries were as comprehensive as the data from many Global North countries, an even greater degree of economic and human effects might become visible," Schaefer said.

She warned that we are entering a critical and unpredictable phase of the climate crisis, which will increasingly affect social developments and security for mankind globally.

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