Global Climate Risk Index: Africa hit hard by extreme events

Africa is the continent that was hit hardest by extreme weather events in 2015.

According to the 12th edition of the Global Climate Risk Index, four out of the ten most impacted countries globally are African: Mozambique (Rank 1), Malawi (Rank 3), Ghana and Madagascar (both Rank 8). 

"Especially flooding affected the hosting continent of this year's climate summit", says Germanwatch's Sönke Kreft, main author of the Index.

Heat waves claimed most lives last year – more than 4,300 deaths in India and more than 3,300 deaths in France show that both developing and developed countries are impacted by extraordinary temperatures.

"Increases in heavy precipitation, flooding and heatwaves are to be expected in a warming world," said Kreft.

Ghana's vulnerability to climate change is in large part defined by its exposure to the various impacts with droughts, floods and sea erosion as the main drivers.

The economic, social and infrastructural sectors are negatively impacted. In the northern parts of Ghana, severe drought and flooding have reduced agricultural productivity, loss of property and investments.

In southern Ghana, sea level rise and other extreme weather conditions have led to loss of lives, displaced communities and low economic activities, especially fishing.

People are suffering from lack of protection and insufficient disaster management especially in poor countries, says Kreft.

"The distribution of climatic events is not fair. In our 20 year analysis of weather extremes nine out of the ten most affected countries are developing countries in the 'low' or 'lower-middle' income category. These are mostly countries with very low emissions, which are least responsible for climate change," he observed.

From 1996 to 2015, there were more than 530,000 deaths caused by more than 11,000 extreme weather events, as well as nearly $3.3 trillion – in Purchasing Power Parities (PPP) – in damages.

The Global Climate Risk Index 2017 is published at the outset of this year's climate summit (COP22) in Marrakech, Morocco.

Kreft has noted “The results of the Global Climate Risk Index remind us of the importance to support resilience policy, to mitigate the negative effects of climatic events on people and countries".

The Germanwatch Global Climate Risk Index 2017 is based on the most recent annual dataset from the MunichRe NatCatSERVICE and socio-economic data from the IMF's World Economic Outlook.

The report features both a short-term and long-term component, analyzing countries most affected by hydrological, meteorological and climatologically extreme weather events in the year 2015 and the period of 1996-2015.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh