The Climate Risk Index report has calculated the casualties and damage caused by extreme meteorological events. Italy ranks sixth for number of deaths in 2018.
More than nine thousand deaths and 238 billion dollars in economic losses in a single year. The consequences of extreme climate events, across the world, are growing ever heavier. This is confirmed by the new edition of the Climate Risk Index report, covering 2018, produced by the German non-governmental organisation Germanwatch.
According to the report, Italy too features among the most affected nations, with 51 deaths and 4.18 billion dollars in losses. But looking at the past two decades, our country ranks sixth in terms of number of casualties. And eighteenth when it comes to economic losses.
Looking at 2018, the Germanwatch report instead identifies Japan as the most vulnerable nation in the face of extreme climate events. With 1,282 deaths and almost 36 billion dollars in losses, equivalent to 0.64 per cent of gross domestic product. What propelled the Asian nation to first place was the almost uninterrupted succession of three extreme events during the summer months.
First, the torrential rains that struck the island between 6 and 8 July, with more than 200 millimetres falling each day. Then an intense heatwave lasting from mid-July to the end of August, which resulted in more than 70,000 people being hospitalised. Finally, in September, the passage of Typhoon Jebi, the most powerful in 25 years.
In second place, also in 2018, are the Philippines. Among European nations, Germany comes third, with 1,256 deaths and 5 billion dollars in damages. The Old Continent's largest economy experienced the hottest second half of a year on record, since temperatures began to be measured systematically. The thermometer in the western regions exceeded 40 degrees.
The ranking drawn up by Germanwatch then places Madagascar fourth, followed by India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Rwanda, Canada and Fiji. The Climate Risk Index takes into account heatwaves, floods, hurricanes, typhoons and drought episodes. The document highlights that it is not always straightforward to establish a link between a given event and climate change caused by human activity. Nevertheless, the experts who drafted the text drew on numerous scientific studies showing that climate is a factor capable of exacerbating the extreme episodes under consideration.
Between 1999 and 2018, there were approximately 12,000 such events. They caused the deaths of 495,000 people, as well as economic losses amounting to 3,540 billion dollars. Particularly in Puerto Rico, Myanmar and Haiti. All of this confirms, while the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 25, is in full swing in Madrid, the need to act immediately, both to safeguard the most exposed populations and to ensure prosperity for future generations.
"COP 25 must not only make it possible to determine the support needed to help the most vulnerable countries, but must also chart the course for securing continuous financing in their favour," the organisation stated. The transfer of resources from the global north to the global south once again represents one of the central sticking points in climate negotiations.
