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There were more than 400 extreme weather events recorded in India during 1993-2022, causing losses of nearly USD 180 billion (inflation-adjusted) and at least 80,000 fatalities
In the case of India, the impact was most seen due to recurring floods from heavy monsoons, heatwaves, and cyclones, which displaced millions and damaged agriculture. (Representational image: PTI)
India was ranked among the top ten countries most affected by climate-related extreme weather events between 1993 and 2022, according to the Climate Risk Index (CRI) 2025 published by Bonn-based environmental organisation Germanwatch.
The CRI, which ranks countries based on their economic and human toll of extreme weather events, is based on the most comprehensive publicly available historical dataset, including information from the EM-DAT international disaster database, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
It took into account as many as 9,400 extreme weather events from 1993 to 2022, which killed over 7.65 lakh people worldwide and caused direct losses of nearly 4.2 trillion USD. 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.
Devastating floods impacted half of the people affected, while storms caused the most significant economic losses, followed by searing heatwaves and droughts. In Dominica, the losses incurred by a single extreme weather event were found to far exceed the country’s entire gross domestic product.
India: Recurring floods, cyclones
In the case of India, the impact was most seen due to recurring floods from heavy monsoons, heatwaves, and cyclones, which displaced millions and damaged agriculture. There were more than 400 extreme weather events in the three decades, causing losses of nearly USD 180 billion (inflation-adjusted) and at least 80,000 fatalities.
The index highlighted the devastating floods experienced in 1993, 1998, and 2013, along with severe heat waves in 2002, 2003, and 2015. Other notable events included the 1998 Gujarat and 1999 Odisha cyclones, 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.
“The past three decades show that countries in the Global South are particularly affected by extreme weather events. If the data from these countries were as comprehensive as those from many Global North countries, an even greater degree of economic and human effects might become visible,” said Laura Schaefer, Head of Division for International Climate Policy at Germanwatch.
‘Need more adaptation finance for Global South’
The numbers are crucial because the devastating impacts are often underreported in Global South countries due to data gaps and other challenges. They also highlight how insufficient ambition and action in climate mitigation and adaptation result in significant impacts, even for high-income countries.
Last year, the UN Climate Summit (COP29) failed to deliver an ambitious New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on Climate Finance. The authors also noted that considering the identified needs and the great urgency of the climate challenges, the USD 300 billion annually by 2035 was only a “bare minimum response” to the escalating climate crisis. It also failed to include measures to address loss and damage.
“The next climate summit in Brazil must address the lack of additional climate finance to support the most vulnerable in increasing their adaptive capacities and adequately addressing loss and damage. Most vulnerable countries are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change,” said co-author Lina Adil, Policy Advisor for Adaptation and Loss & Damage at Germanwatch.
The report’s authors also noted that while it’s difficult to attribute economic losses and fatalities from extreme weather directly to climate change, there is a general consensus among scientists worldwide that human-induced climate change has intensified the frequency and scale of such events. Additionally, the impacts on countries in the Global South could be more than reported.
