Bhubaneswar: Between 1993 and 2022, India was among the top ten countries most affected by extreme climate events. As per the Climate Risk Index (CRI) 2025 published by Bonn-based environmental organisation Germanwatch, there were more than 400 extreme weather events  and at least 80,000 fatalities during this period. 

The report https://www.germanwatch.org/en/cri also stated that the weather events caused a loss of nearly USD 180 billion (inflation adjusted) in the country as against nearly 4.2 trillion USD worldwide. The findings were shared after taking into account as many as 9,400 extreme weather events from 1993 to 2022, which killed over 7.65 lakh people globally.

In India, while there were devastating floods in 1993, 1998 and 2013, severe heat waves marked the years 2002, 2003 and 2015. More than 400 extreme events were seen across three decades including the 1998 and 1999 cyclones in Gujarat and Odisha, respectively, which displaced millions and caused massive loss to agriculture. 

Other notable events included Cyclones Hudhud and Amphan in 2014 and 2020, the 1993 floods in northern India, the Uttarakhand floods of 2013, and severe floods in 2019. Recurring and unusually intense heatwaves, all with temperatures around 50°C, claimed many lives in 1998, 2002, 2003, and 2015.

Elaborating on the report findings, Head of Division for International Climate Policy at Germanwatch Laura Schaefer said countries in the Global South were particularly affected by extreme weather events in last three decades and the impact on economy and human lives in this region would have been laid out in a much more comprehensive manner but for the lack of sufficient data.

The CRI ranks countries based on their economic and human toll of extreme weather events and is based on historical set of data available publicly including information from the EM-DAT international disaster database, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Dominica, China, and Honduras topped the list of most affected countries during the 30-year period, followed by Myanmar, Italy, India, Greece, Spain, Vanuatu, and the Philippines.

Authors of the report also stressed that though climate change may not be directly attributed to all economic losses and fatalities in extreme weather events, human-induced climate change definitely has accelerated and intensified the phenomenon.