India was among the 10 countries most affected by extreme weather events between 1993 and 2022, accounting for 10% of global fatalities caused by such events, and 4.3% of the damage (in dollar terms) .
The country was ranked sixth in the Climate Risk Index, 2025 published by Germanwatch, an independent development, environmental, and human rights organisation based in Bonn and Berlin, highlighting its vulnerability to the climate crisis. Dominica, China, Honduras Myanmar, and Italy, are ranked ahead of India.
Also Read: Hottest Jan ever as La Nina fails to moderate temps
India was affected by floods, heatwaves, and cyclones during the period. It experienced devastating floods in 1993, 1998, and 2013, along with severe heatwaves in 2002, 2003, and 2015. All told, the country, faced more than 400 extreme events, causing $ 180 billion in losses, and at least 80,000 fatalities, according to Germanwatch, which estimated that, globally, extreme weather events caused almost 800,000 deaths and $4.2 trillion in damage.
Also Read: 2024 was Earth’s hottest year ever, major climate threshold breached
Some of the extreme weather events in India in these three decades are the 1998 Gujarat cyclone and the 1999 Odisha cyclone, cyclones Hudhud and Amphan in 2014 and 2020, the Uttarakhand floods in 2013, recurring intense heat waves with temperatures of almost 50 degrees C recorded in 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2015 . The backward-looking index analyses how climate-related extreme weather events affect countries and ranks countries according to economic and human effects on them.
Also Read: President Donald Trump signs executive order withdrawing US from Paris climate accord
The findings of the report are based on extreme weather event data from the International Disaster Database (Em-dat) and socio-economic data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The other four countries in the top 10 are Greece, Spain Vanuatu and Philippines in that order..
“The climate crisis is increasingly becoming a global security risk and must be addressed with bold multilateral actions. Leaders at the Munich Security Conference cannot discuss security challenges without addressing climate change. 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. There are increasing signs that we are entering a critical and unpredictable phase of the climate crisis, which will further aggravate conflicts, destabilize societies and negatively affect human security worldwide,” Laura Schaefer, Head of Division for International Climate Policy at Germanwatch said in a statement.
The report accompanying the index also recognises that climate finance available to deal with such extreme events is inadequate. COP29 in Baku failed to deliver an ambitious New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on Climate Finance. “Considering the identified needs, and the great urgency of the climate challenges that developing countries face, the $ 300 billion (promised) annually by 2035 can only be seen as the bare minimum response to the escalating climate crisis. NCQG also failed to include measures to address loss and damage. This gap must be filled as soon as possible,” it said
“High-income and high-emission countries must recognize the urgency of accelerating mitigation efforts. The less we invest in mitigation and adaptation today, the more staggering the human and economic costs will be in the future“ said David Eckstein, Senior Advisor for Climate Finance and Investments at Germanwatch and co-author of the index.