News: The Climate Risk Index (CRI) 2026 was released at COP30 in Belém on November 11, 2025, highlighting global extreme weather impacts.
About Climate Risk Index (CRI) 2026
- The Climate Risk Index 2026 is an annual assessment that ranks countries based on the human and economic impact of extreme weather events.
- It shows how repeated disasters have affected countries over the last 30 years.
- Published by: It is published by Germanwatch, (a Bonn-based environmental and development organization).
- First Published in: It was first published in 2006.
- It uses data from:
- EM-DAT international disaster database
- International Monetary Fund
- World Bank
- 3 Hazard Categories
- Hydrological: It includes Floods, glacial lake outbursts
- Meteorological: It includes Storms, cyclones
- Climatological: It includes Heatwaves, wildfires
- Ranking: A higher rank indicates greater vulnerability and damage from extreme weather events linked to human-induced climate change.
- Key Findings
- Total global impact between 1995 and 2024:
- Extreme weather caused over 832,000 deaths,
- Affected 5.7 billion people, and
- Produced losses over $4.5 trillion..
- Most Affected countries: Dominica, Myanmar, and Honduras are the most affected in the long-term index.
- Continuous threats: The report places India, the Philippines, Nicaragua, and Haiti in a “continuous threats” category
- Top countries: All of the top ten countries on the list are in the Global South.
- The report also acknowledges gaps in data available for the Global South on extreme weather events.
- Total global impact between 1995 and 2024:
- Findings related to India
- Rank: India ranks 9th among the most affected countries.
- In terms of the number of people most affected by extreme weather in 2024, India ranked third behind Bangladesh and the Philippines.
- In the last three decades (1995–2024):
- India faced around 430 extreme weather events, which affected more than a billion people in the country, and more than 80,000 people were reported killed in these events, with losses of around $170 billion.
- Flooding was the worst disaster overall, followed by heat waves, and droughts.
