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India ranks sixth among the top 10 countries most affected by extreme weather events over the last three decades from 1993-2023, according to a new report.
The country experienced devastating floods in 1993, 1998, and 2013, along with severe heatwaves in 2002, 2003, and 2015. Overall, more than 400 extreme events have hit India since 1993, causing $180 billion in losses and at least 80,000 fatalities, estimates the Climate Risk Index (CRI) published by non-profit Germanwatch.
Absolute fatalities, economic losses, absolute and relative number of people affected in India have been high.
Some of the notable events that hit the country include the 1998 Gujarat and 1999 Odisha cyclones, Cyclones Hudhud and Amphan in 2014 and 2020, the 1993 floods in northern India, Uttarakhand floods of 2013, and severe floods in 2019. India also faced recurring and unusually intense heatwaves, with temperatures around 50°C, caused fatalities in 1998, 2002, 2003, and 2015.
Countries like China, India, and the Philippines were primarily affected by recurring extreme events, while Dominica, Honduras, Myanmar, and Vanuatu were most impacted by exceptional extreme events.
Globally, there has been more than 765,000 fatalities and economic losses exceeding $4.2 trillion directly resulting from these events. This is equivalent to Germany’s entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Among the different hazards, fatalities were highest for storm, followed by heatwave, flood, drought and wildfire over the last 30 years.
CRI also looked at extreme events in 2022 and countries most affected by it. On this list are Pakistan, Belize, and Italy, followed by Greece, Spain, and Puerto Rico. The United States, Nigeria, Portugal and Bulgaria were ranked 7-10.
In 2022, heatwave claimed most lives, followed by flood, drought, storm and wildfire. The 2022 European heatwave was the main cause of high fatalities due to heatwave. An unusually persistent heatwave affected Italy (3rd), Greece (4th), Spain (5th), Portugal (9th), and Bulgaria (10th), and large parts of the European continent.
The report suggests that from 1993 to 2022, 5 of the 10 most affected countries, including India, were from the lower middle-income group. Two (Dominica and China) belonged to the upper middle-income group, while three (Italy, Greece, and Spain) from the high-income group.
As for the 2022 ranking, only two countries (Pakistan and Nigeria) were from the lower middle-income group. One (Belize) was from the upper middle-income group, and seven countries and territories (Italy, Greece, Spain, Puerto Rico, United States, Portugal, and Bulgaria) with high incomes (five are European countries) in the 10 most affected countries, shows the report.
The report makes the case for more financial support. “Most vulnerable countries are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change partly due to their limited financial and technical capabilities to adapt and manage losses and damages. Simultaneously, to prevent further loss and damage, countries urgently need to ramp up their mitigation action with new nationally determined contributions to stay below or as close as possible to 1.5°C warming,” Lina Adil, Policy Advisor for Adaptation and Loss & Damage at Germanwatch and co-author of the index, said in a statement.