765,000+ people died worldwide due to 9,400+ extreme weather events over 30-year period of 1993-2022: Germanwatch

The latest organisation’s report suggests impacts of extreme weather events over the long term particularly affect Global South countries, with five countries from the lower middle-income group forming the largest country group among the 10 most affected countries

Germanwatch, an independent Berlin-based climate policy watchdog, has released its latest report and ranking, updating the climate impacts and risks faced by countries worldwide in the short and long terms; in 2022 alone, and during the 30 years between 1993 and 2022. 

The Climate Risk Index (CRI) 2025 report said from 1993 to 2022, more than 765,000 lives were lost by more than 9,400 extreme weather events, alongside direct economic losses of nearly US $4.2 trillion. 

Scorching heat, heavy rainfalls, raging wildfires, deadly floods, and devastating storms, the manifestations of extreme weather events, have become too common in a new reality worldwide, it said.

“The frequency and intensity of climate-related disasters continue to rise, and these figures underscore the urgent need for climate action.

“…The growing cost of inaction reveals the mounting human and economic toll,” the report noted.

From 1993 to 2022, storms (35%), heat waves (30%), and floods (27%) caused the most fatalities, the CRI 2025 report said. Floods were responsible for over half of the people affected. Storms, by far, caused the most significant economic losses, 56% or US $2.33 trillion), followed by floods, 32% or US $1.33 trillion.

The most affected countries in the long-term index can be divided into two groups. The first group comprises countries most affected by highly unusual extreme events, such as Dominica, Honduras, Myanmar, and Vanuatu. The second group includes countries affected by recurring extreme events, such as China, India, and the Philippines. From the ranking, Dominica, China, and Honduras were the countries most affected by the impacts of extreme weather events during those 30 years.

“Climate science clearly shows that climate change increases the risk for both categories and contributes to transforming uncommonly extreme events into continual threats, creating a new normal,” the report noted, adding that human-induced climate change affects the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and leads to widespread adverse climate impacts.

Over the long term, the report said that the impacts of extreme weather events particularly affect Global South countries. Five countries from the lower middle-income group form the largest country group among the 10 most affected countries, including three Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries, where coping capacities are significantly lower, the same report noted.

The organisation remarks that the CRI ranking is based on the best publicly available historical data set on the impacts of extreme weather events. Extreme weather events and their impacts are often underreported in Global South countries because of data quality and coverage challenges and data gaps. As a result, this ranking may less accurately capture these impacts and, therefore, how Global South countries are affected.

Over all, its CRI index suggests that all countries are affected. The report cited seven of the 10 most affected countries in 2022 alone are of the high-income country group. For the short-term assessment, the report has found that Pakistan, Belize, and Italy as the most affected by the impacts of the extreme weather events in 2022.

“This clearly indicates that, while the coping capacities of high-income countries significantly exceed those of lower-income countries, higher-income countries should also increase their climate risk management,” the report suggested.

CRI

The Climate Risk Index (CRI) ranks countries by the human and economic toll of extreme weather. The index, published since 2006, is one of the longest-running annual climate impact-related indices, using data drawn from the EM-DAT international disaster database, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The CRI analyses climate-related extreme weather events’ degree of effect on countries. In doing so, it measures the consequences of realised risks on countries. This backwards-looking index ranks countries by their economic and human impacts (fatalities as well as affected, injured, and homeless) with the most affected country ranked highest, according to the organisation.

The CRI visualises such events’ degree of effect two years before the index’s publication for the short-term assessment and over the preceding 30 years for the long-term one. The index contextualises international climate policy debates and processes with a view to the climate risk countries are facing. It simplifies the aggregation and understanding of climate-related extreme weather events’ impacts across different regions and time periods. 

The most strongly affected countries rank highest and should view the CRI results as a warning sign that they are at risk of frequent events or rare and unusual extreme events, the organisation suggests.

Thailand’s ranks

The CRI 2025 for the short-term assessment has ranked Thailand as the world’s 72th most affected by extreme weather events, moving it down from the previous assessment in 2019, which placed it at 34th. For the long-term assessment, the index has also moved the country down, from 9th to 30th.

According to the Department of Climate Change and the Environment, the better position in the long-term rank of the country partly results from the extended period of the assessment, from 20 years to 30 years. There are several countries which were more severely affected by the events during the past three or four years, the DCCE added.

“Although Thailand was not ranked high as the country with high climate risks like in the past, we continue to face extreme weather events and their impacts. The best practice we should take is preparedness and adaptation to climate change so that we can be more resilient to extreme weather events and disasters,” said DCCE’s Director-General, Dr. Phirun Saiyasitpanich.

COP29’s failure

The CRI 2025 report also said COP29 failed to deliver an ambitious New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on Climate Finance. Considering the identified needs, and the great urgency of the climate challenges that developing countries face, the USD 300 billion annually by 2035 can only be seen as the bare minimum response to the escalating climate crisis. 

The NCQG also failed to include measures to address loss and damage, the report noted, further adding that this gap must be filled as soon as possible. 

“This situation is even more worrying given the extensive gaps in adaptation finance compared with the needs and commitments (even if progress was made). Substantially increased support by high-emitting countries and other polluters is needed for the most vulnerable in addressing climate impacts,” the report pointed out.

The CRI also shows that a lack of ambition and action in mitigation leads to being strongly affected, even in high-income countries, the report further pointed out.

“It is in the interest of high-income and highly emitting countries to ramp up mitigation action, including higher climate targets and such action’s implementation, with new nationally determined contributions (NDCs), to stay below (or as close as possible to) 1.5C warming and keep impacts at a manageable scale,” the report suggested.