India recorded the highest number of fatalities caused due to climate change in 2018. According to the latest report released by Environment think tank – Germanwatch – India is the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change.
The Climate Risk Index – 2020, India slipped its rank from 14th spot in 2017 to 5th in 2018 in the global vulnerability ladder.
For the year 2018, India stood second in the monetary losses caused due to climate change. India rose up the rank due to torrential rain, accompanied by heavy flood and landslide, killing almost 1,000 people.
The report pointed out that the floods in the country in 2018, were worse than in the last 100 years. The report also said that two devastating cyclones in October and November 2018 battered the states.
The annual monsoon season severely affected India in 2018, with 2,081 deaths due to extreme weather events and losses of $37.8 billion (approximately Rs 2.7 lakh crore) on a purchasing power parity basis.
David Eckstein, policy advisor, climate finance and investment at Germanwatch said that the climate change brought heavy economic damages to India, even though with various public measures, the death toll was kept low.
The report underlined that India also faced the longest heatwave during summer.
The report also highlighted that climate change had affected not only poor countries like Myanmar and Haiti but also some of the richest countries. Japan, which is considered to be one of the most advanced countries, secured the top spot in 2018. It faced the longest heatwave among all other countries.
Countries like Canada and Germany were also in the ‘bottom 10’, that is the most affected.
Among the top ten most affected countries, India, Germany and Japan suffered from extended periods of a heatwave during 2018.
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