India in Global Climate Risk Index 2020

The Bonn, Germany based non-governmental, a non-profit organization, Germanwatch has released its Global climate risk index that analysis to what extent regions and countries have been affected by the impacts of natural weather-related loss events such as storms, heatwaves, floods, etc. Germanwatch was founded in 1991.

The 2020 edition of the Index was launched at a press conference from the 2019 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25) at Madrid, Spain on Wednesday 4th December 2019. The first edition of the index was launched in 1999. This year marks the 15th edition of index.

The 2020 Index covered available data in two index- first for 2018 and second, a separate Index from 1999 to 2018 taken together.

1)As per the 2018, India is ranked as the 5th most affected country by the Index. In 2017 India was ranked 14th most affected by the index.

The 2018 report suggests Kerela as the most affected state with 324 people losing their lives and over 220000 people had to leave their houses, also 80 dams and over 20000 houses were destroyed. Amount of USD 2.8 billion damage in the state of Kerela in 2018. Further India’s eastern coast was hit due to cyclone Gaja and Titli.

2) In the index from 1999-2018 taken together

India is ranked at the 17th most affected country in the world in the last 20 years record from 1999 to 2018 taken together.