Climate Risk Index, 2019

The Climate Risk Index (CRI) is prepared by Germanwatch, a non-profit organisation based in Bonn, Germany. Germanwatch seeks to influence public policy on trade, the environment, and relations between countries in the industrialized north and underdeveloped south.

The Climate Risk Index analyses to what extent countries have been affected by the impacts of weather-related loss events (storms, floods, heat waves etc.). The index looks into the quantified impacts of extreme weather events, in terms of fatalities and economic losses. The Index accounts for accounts for these impacts in absolute as well as relative terms. For assessing economic impact due to climate change, the CRI also looks at losses per unit GDP of each country.

Climate Risk Index 2019:

The Global Climate Risk Index 2019 was released at the Katowice, Poland during the COP-24. The findings of the report include

• The countries and territories which were worst affected in 2017 were Puerto Rico, Sri Lanka and Dominica followed by Nepal, Peru and Vietnam. India was ranked 14^th in the list.
• For the period from 1998 to 2017 Puerto Rico, Honduras and Myanmar were the worst affected.
• The analysis of the 2019 index reconfirms the earlier observations of the Climate Risk Index. The earlier observations have noted that less developed countries are generally more affected than industrialised countries.
• The Climate Risk Index serves as a red flag for already existing vulnerability that would further increase in regions where extreme events will become more frequent or more severe due to climate change.
• High income countries are feeling climate impacts more clearly than ever before. The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season was a testimony to this fact.
• The index notes that more than 5,26,000 people died as a direct result of more than 11,500 extreme weather events. The losses between 1998 and 2017 amounted to around US$ 3.47 trillion.
• South Asian countries are among the most vulnerable globally to the impacts of climate change.
• Poorer countries are the most affected and eight of the 10 countries most affected between 1998 and 2017 were developing economies.
• Massive rainfall resulted in floods across Nepal, Bangladesh and India, more than 40 million people were affected and as many as 200 people lost their lives in these countries and millions were displaced throughout the region.
• The occurrence of events like El Nino could double in the future due to climate change,

Findings about India:

• India has suffered 73,212 casualties during 1998-2017 and their annual average casualty during 1998-2017 was 3,660, second only to Myanmar’s 7,048.
• Since these numbers are adjusted for population, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal are placed above India on the list.
• Between 1998-2017, India faced the super-cyclone (in Odisha), other cyclones, floods, landslides and extreme rain and heatwave events.

German Watch had prepared the risk index using the NatCat SERVICE database of the reinsurance company Munich Re and socioeconomic data of the International Monetary Fund.