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India ranks sixth among countries prone to extreme climate events

  • According to global Climate Risk Index (CRI) by Berlin-based NGO Germanwatch, released on Thursday, the US, Taiwan, Macedonia and Bolivia are some of the other countries that have the vulnerability risk.
  • India ranked fourth in the list last year after economic and population per data from IMF were taken into account while arriving at the rankings.
  • The report is considered a warning signal for high-ranking countries to consider the index as a measurement of their vulnerability to extreme weather events or extraordinary catastrophes.
India ranks sixth among countries prone to extreme climate events

India has been ranked sixth among the vulnerable countries in the world pertaining to extreme weather events. The other countries in the list include Haiti, Zimbabwe, Fiji, Sri Lanka and Vietnam taking the top five positions.

According to global Climate Risk Index (CRI) by Berlin-based NGO Germanwatch, released on Thursday, the US, Taiwan, Macedonia and Bolivia are some of the other countries that have the vulnerability risk. The determining factors for the index include death per lakh due to climatic conditions, extent of financial loss and loss per unit of GDP countries. 

India ranked fourth in the list last year after economic and population per data from IMF were taken into account while arriving at the rankings. The report, released in 2016, stated that India lost the maximum number of lives, accounting for 2,119 people and had incurred a financial loss of $21 billion during weather-related events. The US suffered the maximum financial loss last year, accounting for $47 billion.

The TOI report further published the CRI analysis of relevant data of the past 20 years and found that over 5,24,000 lives were lost and the world is said to have suffered a loss to the tune of $3.16 trillion as a direct result of more than 11,000 extreme weather events in the period. However, in the present analysis, only weather-related events like storms, floods and extreme temperatures have been incorporated. The report said, "Geological incidents like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or tsunamis, for which data is also available, are not relevant in this context as they do not depend on the weather and, therefore, are not possibly related to climate change."

The report further added, "CRI does not provide an all-encompassing analysis of risk of anthropogenic climate change but should be seen as just one analysis explaining countries' exposure and vulnerability to climate related risk based on reliable quantified data. It is based on current and past climate variability and also on climate change."

The report is considered a warning signal for high-ranking countries to consider the index as a measurement of their vulnerability to extreme weather events or extraordinary catastrophes. Incidentally, India featured in the 12th position in the long-term CRI of countries. And the 10 most vulnerable countries include Honduras, Haiti, Myanmar, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, Thailand and the Dominican Republic. 

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