Even today in our society, there are many people who do not consider climate change to be their problem and consider the problems of a distant country. But for such people, the Climate Risk Index released today will surely be shocking. This index shows which country is at risk due to climate change. So when it comes to the dangers arising due to climate change, then you will be surprised to know that India is among the top ten countries in the world in terms of these threats.
India ranks seventh on the Climate Risk Index and Mozambique is at the top here. Countries like Zimbabwe, Japan, and Malawi are above India. Three of the top five countries are from Africa. While heavy storms and their direct impact on Mozambique, Zimbabwe and the Bahamas caused the most injuries in 2019, Puerto Rico, Myanmar and Haiti suffered the most weather-related losses in the 2000–2019 period.
In developing countries, vulnerable people/groups suffer the most from extreme weather events such as hurricanes, floods, and heatwaves, while the effects of climate change are visible worldwide. The deadliest and costly tropical cyclone in the southwestern Indian Ocean, Idai, was described by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as “one of the worst weather-related catastrophes in the history of Africa”. This caused catastrophic damage and humanitarian crises, making Mozambique and Zimbabwe, in 2019, the two most affected countries. The Bahamas is in third place after Hurricane Dorian’s devastation. In the last 20 years (2000 – 2019), Puerto Rico, Myanmar and Haiti were the countries most affected by the effects of such weather events.
Some of the main results of the Global Climate Risk Index 2021 (Global Climate Risk Index 2021) are published by environmental think tank GermanWatch, hours before the International Climate Adoption Summit begins today.
Research Director and Adjunct Associate Professor at Bharti Institute of Public Policy, Coordinating Lead (Head) of IPCC (IPCC) Special Report on Oceans and Cryospheres, and Working Group 2 of IPCC Sixth Assessment Report on India’s inclusion in this index Lead author, Dr. Anjal Prakash, says, “It is not surprising to find that India is among the top 10 most affected countries in the 2021 Global Climate Risk Index. India is blessed with ecological diversity – glaciers, high mountains, long coastlines as well as large scale semi-arid regions that are centers of attraction for climate change. Due to global warming, the frequency of cyclones is increasing, the speed of melting of glaciers is accelerating, and heatwaves are occurring. ” He adds, “Most of the Indian population is dependent on agriculture, which is being severely affected by the effects of climate change.” This year, India saw many of its cities sink due to the variability of the monsoon system. Several global reports, including the IPCC report, have been pointing to this year after year.
Extending his point, Dr. Prakash poses a question, “What is the lack of government response against the effects of climate change for the protection of our people?” A National Adoption Plan was prepared in 2008, after which state plans were made. But most of the schemes are lacking in resources, so they have integrated into district development and disaster risk reduction plans. The time has come for the government to commission state / district-specific climate-risk maps of India to further segment this information to understand which areas need more attention than others. “
On this index, David Eckstein of Germanwatch says, “The Global Climate Risk Index shows that poor and weak countries face particularly great challenges in coping with the consequences of extreme weather events. They are in urgent need of financial and technical support. Therefore, recent studies suggest that, first, the $ 100 billion-per-year goal pledged by industrialized nations will not be reached, and second that only a small proportion of it has been provided for climate adaptation. The Climate Adoption Summit starting today should address these problems. “
Among the ten countries most affected between 2000 and 2019, there are low or low-middle-income developing countries per capita. Vera Kuenzel of Germanwatch states, “The poorest countries suffer the most because they are more vulnerable to the harmful effects of hazards and have less potential.” Countries such as Haiti, the Philippines, and Pakistan are repeatedly vulnerable to extreme weather events and do not have time to fully recover before the next event occurs. Therefore, to strengthen their resilience, they should not only address adaptations but also provide the necessary support to deal with loss and harm. “
Since 2000, approximately 480,000 people have died as a result of more than 11.000 extreme weather events.
In the last 20 years, globally, about 480,000 fatalities were directly linked to more than 11.000 extreme weather events. Economic losses were approximately US $ 2.56 trillion (calculated in purchasing-power parity, PPP (Purchasing Power Parity)) – an increase again compared to a year earlier (see note below).
Hurricanes and their direct implications – perspiration (large amounts of rain, snow, etc.), floods and landslides – were the major causes of damage in 2019. Six of the ten most affected countries were affected by tropical cyclones in 2019. Recent science predicts that not only the severity but the number of severe tropical cyclones will increase with every tenth degree of temperature increase globally.
Says Laura Scheffer of Germanwatch, “The global Kovid-19 epidemic has reiterated the fact that vulnerable countries are exposed to a wide variety of risks – climate, geophysical, economic and health – and that vulnerability is systemic and interrelated. “It is therefore important to focus on these interrelationships. Strengthening the climate resilience of countries is an important part of this challenge. The Climate Adoption Summit provides an opportunity to take an important step in this direction.”
Dr. M. Shahjahan Mondal, a climate scientist and director of the Institute of Water and Flood Management from Bangladesh Institute of Engineering and Technology, said, “Bangladesh, because of its geophysical location, has always been sensitive to extreme weather events and climate change. is. Our country is in the downward flow of the Himalayan region and three huge rivers (Padma, called the Ganges in India, Meghna and Jamuna), which take down all the flood waters from the north during the monsoon season, Causing catastrophic flooding. Most recently in 2020, we experienced a devastating flood in which more than a quarter of the country was underwater.
The Bay of Bengal, on the other hand, is the largest water area in the world called the Gulf, and tropical cyclones that form exclusively in this funnel-shaped bay are deadly. Last year we experienced Cyclone Amfan, one of the most powerful, and one of the most expensive [with] wind speeds of 270 kmph, with an estimated total loss of over US $ 13 billion. . It is clear from scientific evidence that global warming is one of the reasons for such extreme cyclones as well as erratic and prolonged rains. “
For your information, let us tell you that GermanWatch derives its data from the NatCatservices database of the Munich Re reinsurance company and the socio-economic data of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to calculate the annual Global Climate Risk Index. Even though the assessment of increasing losses and fatalities does not allow a simple conclusion on the impact of climate change on these events, it does reflect the rise of massive disasters and gives a good estimate of the impact of states and territories. From 2006 to 2019, Germanwatch presented the index at the annual United Nations Climate Summit (COP / COUP), due to the postponement of COP / COUP 26, this time the index has been published just before the Climate Adoption Summit.