THE Philippines, still reeling from Typhoon Tisoy (international code name Kammuri) which claimed the lives of 17 people and destroyed more than P800 million worth of crops, has ranked second among countries most affected by extreme weather events in 2018, after Japan and before Germany, according to a global report.
Germanwatch, an environmental think tank, released its Global Climate Risk Index 2020 report at the UN climate negotiations (COP25) on Wednesday afternoon, in Madrid.
Renato Redentor Constantino, executive director of the climate and policy NGO, the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, joined the launch to highlight the injustice of the climate crisis, and was quoted in the press release of Germanwatch.
According to the Global Climate Risk Index, Japan and Germany were hit hardest by heat waves and drought in 2018, while the Philippines ranked No. 2 among those struck by tropical cyclones.
The Germanwatch said “extreme weather events are massive challenges especially for poor and vulnerable countries,” but added that “high-income countries are threatened more and more by climate risks,” as well.
Looking at the years from 1999 to 2018, poor countries had to face much higher impacts, said the report: Seven of the 10 countries most affected in this period are developing countries with low- or lower middle-income per capita. Puerto Rico, Myanmar and Haiti were most affected, according to this long-term index. In the past 20 years, globally nearly 500,000 fatalities were directly linked to more than 12,000 extreme weather events. The economic damage amounted to approximately $3.54 trillion (calculated in Purchasing Power Parity, PPP).
“The Climate Risk Index shows that climate change has disastrous impacts especially for poor countries, but also causes increasingly severe damage in industrialized countries like Japan or Germany,” said David Eckstein of Germanwatch. “Countries like Haiti, Philippines and Pakistan are repeatedly hit by extreme weather events and have no time to fully recover.
That underlines the importance of reliable financial support mechanisms for poor countries like these not only in climate-change adaptation, but also for dealing with climate-induced loss and damage.”
Constantino, executive director of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (Philippines), noted that, “Those who are least responsible for the problem, are the ones who are suffering the most. This is unacceptable.”
Heat waves were one major cause of damage in 2018. Of the 10 most affected countries last year, Germany, Japan and India, were suffering from extended periods of heat. Recent science has confirmed the long-established link between climate change and the frequency and severity of extreme heat. In Europe, for example, extreme heat spells are now up to 100 times more likely than a century ago. Furthermore, due to a lack of data, impacts of heat waves on the African continent may be under-represented.
The climate summit needs to address the still lacking climate finance to help the poorest people and countries cope with losses, said Laura Schaefer of Germanwatch. “They are hit hardest by climate- change impacts because they lack the financial and technical capacity to deal with the losses and damages,” she strtessed.
“The climate conference therefore needs to result in a decision to regularly determine the support needs of vulnerable countries for future damages. Furthermore, COP25 has to decide upon necessary steps to generate reliable financial resources to meet these needs. Nevertheless, implementation of adaptation to climate change must be strengthened, too,” said Schaefer.
Germanwatch receives its data for annually calculating the Global Climate Risk Index from the NatCatSERVICE database of the reinsurance company Munich Re, as well as the socioeconomic data of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Even though the evaluation of the rising damages and fatalities do not allow for simple conclusions on the influence of climate change on these events, it shows the increase of heavy disasters and does give a good impression of the affectedness of states and territories. Since 2006, Germanwatch has presented the index at the annual UN climate conference.
Germanwatch, based in Bonn and Berlin (Germany), is an independent development and environmental organization which works for sustainable global development. It actively promotes North-South equity and the preservation of livelihoods.