In 2017, India Ranked Global Second in Extreme Weather Deaths
India was globally the 14th most vulnerable country to climate risk in terms of extreme weather-related losses in 2017, improving its tally from sixth in 2016 and fourth in 2015. But the country was ranked second for fatalities suffered in such weather-related events.
India had hit its lowest vulnerability position in 2013, when it was No. 3 in the global Climate Risk Index (CRI) rankings, the latest edition of which was released on the sidelines of the UN climate conference at Katowice in Poland on Tuesday.
Though India took the second spot in terms of absolute numbers of lives lost, reporting 2,736 deaths in 2017 against 2,978 fatalities reported in Puerto Rico — which held the top spot — its fatalities per one lakh inhabitants and its losses per unit of GDP are not that high. These parameters made it less vulnerable than even the US, which is ranked 12th in the vulnerability list of 181 countries in 2017.
Though Puerto Rico is part of the USA, the Germanwatch analysed it as a separate territory based on its geographical location and socio-economic indicators. Noting that Puerto Rico has different conditions and exposure to extreme weather events than the rest of the USA, the report says, "The Global CRI aims to provide a comprehensive and detailed overview about which countries and regions are particularly affected by extreme weather events. Therefore, Puerto Rico was considered separately in our analysis."
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