Almost 800.000 deaths and 4,2 trillion US dollars in damage caused by extreme weather events in 30 years

Berlin (12. Feb. 2025). The number and strength of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, storms, and heatwaves are increasing and gradually becoming the „new normal“ in some regions of the world. The Climate Risk Index 2025, published today by the environmental organization Germanwatch, shows that over the last 30 years, Global South countries have been particularly affected by the impacts of extreme weather events. The backward-looking index analyses how climate-related extreme weather events affect countries and ranks countries according to economic and human effects on them (fatalities and affected, injured, and homeless people), with the most affected country ranked first.

Between 1993 and 2022, more than 9.400 extreme weather events happened. These killed almost 800.000 people and caused economic damages totaling 4,2 trillion US dollars (inflation-adjusted). While countries like China, India, and the Philippines were primarily affected by recurring extreme events, Dominica, Honduras, Myanmar, and Vanuatu were most affected by exceptional extreme events. With Italy, Spain, and Greece, there are three EU states among the ten most affected countries worldwide over the past 30 years.

Laura Schaefer, Head of Division for International Climate Policy at Germanwatch: „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 this weekend 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.”

More financial support for affected countries needed

The new Climate Risk Index shows that insufficient ambition and action in climate mitigation and adaptation result in significant impacts, even for high-income countries. „High-income and high-emission countries must recognize the urgency of accelerating mitigation efforts. Over the past 30 years, losses totaling 4,2 trillion Dollars are comparable to the entire GDP of Germany. The less we invest in mitigation and adaptation today, the more staggering the human and economic costs will be in the future“, states David Eckstein, Senior Advisor for Climate Finance and Investments at Germanwatch and co-author of the index.

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. Lina Adil, Policy Advisor for Adaptation and Loss & Damage at Germanwatch and co-author of the index, adds: „Most vulnerable countries are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change partly due to their limited financial and technical capabilities to adapt and manage losses and damages. Simultaneously, to prevent further loss and damage, countries urgently need to ramp up their mitigation action with new nationally determined contributions to stay below or as close as possible to 1,5°C warming.”

The Climate Risk Index shows that in some cases, such as Dominica, the losses incurred by a single extreme weather event can be many times higher than the entire gross domestic product of a country. In China, a particularly large number of people were affected by floods, typhoons, and drought, while in Italy, major heatwaves and their consequences cost more than 38.000 lives - especially in 2003 and 2022. Vera Kuenzel, Senior Advisor for Adaptation and Human Rights at Germanwatch and co-author of the index states: “The index results clearly show that all countries need to improve their climate risk management to be better prepared for extremes and minimize human and economic damage. The most vulnerable countries need to be supported in this effort.”

About the Climate Risk Index
Since 2006, the Climate Risk Index has analyzed the number of deaths, people affected, and economic damage caused by extreme weather events - in absolute figures and relative to the population or gross domestic product. Germanwatch has revised the index methodology and has been compiling it since this year based on data from the International Disaster Database (EM-DAT) on extreme weather events and socio-economic data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Although the analyses of economic losses and fatalities do not allow a simple statement about the proportion of these that can be attributed to climate change, a picture can be drawn of the extent to which countries are affected. There is a broad consensus in climate science that human-induced climate change affects the frequency and intensity of many extreme weather events and leads to widespread adverse climate impacts. In more and more cases, attribution research can also precisely determine the contribution of climate change to extreme weather events. Although the index is compiled based on the most comprehensive publicly available database, the authors point out that countries in the global South are probably even more affected than shown here. The consequences of extreme weather events are documented much more comprehensively and accurately in many industrialized nations than in poorer countries.