India among 5 economies worst hit by climate change: UN Report

NEW DELHI: Climate change is causing more havoc than geophysical events like earthquakes and tsunamis. A study by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) shows how climate change has affected us in the last 20 years — of all the 7,255 disasters recorded globally between 1998 and 2017, floods accounted for 43% or 3,148 incidents followed by storms at 2,049. Together, floods and storms accounted for 72% of all disasters.

The UN report, released on International Disaster Day on October 13, said about 91% of all disasters during 1998-2017 were caused by floods, storms, droughts, heatwaves and other extreme weather events, something that should alarm policy-makers here in India as it is most affected by all such climate change incidents.

What is more worrying for low income countries like India is the fact that economic losses from up to 87% of disasters are not reported. Globally, disaster losses are estimated at $520 billion per annum, pushing more than 26 million people into poverty every year. The inequality is rising and far greater than projected, the study noted.


Though India is yet to develop a robust mechanism to capture all disaster losses, an estimate by an agency says annual loss of human lives on account of just floods is an average 1,600, while loss of properties is more than Rs 1,800 crore per year. Besides floods, India has been experiencing hundreds of deaths every year due to storms, heat waves and other extreme weather-related incidents.

The UN report has listed India among top five countries in the world with $80 billion in absolute economic loss due to disasters in the last 20 years. The global warming of 1 degree celsius compared to pre-industrial level has already altered the disaster map — disasters related to climate change have doubled in the latest 20-year period, an average 329 per year, compared to 165 during 1978-1997.

The study said, during 1998-2017, storms, including cyclones and hurricanes, were second only to earthquakes in terms of fatalities, killing 2,33,000 people. With 2 billion population displaced and rendered homeless, floods have affected the largest number of people, followed by drought affecting a further 1.5 billion in the last 20 years.

People in poor nations, exposed to natural hazards, are seven times more vulnerable than those in the richest nations.