Bangladesh riskiest on global climate index

By: Pinaki Roy on December 5th, 2008

Pinaki Roy from Poznan, Poland

Bangladesh, the country most affected by extreme weather events cyclone Sidr and floods in 2007, has emerged top of a global climate risk index announced here by researchers.

An international NGO, Germanwatch, prepared the index of 170 countries, the Global Climate Risk Index 2009, and released it yesterday at the conference centre here where the UN climate change summit is taking place.

Bangladesh is top with a climate risk index (CRI) of 3.00, while North Korea took second position with 10.33 and Nicaragua came third with 12.25.

Bangladesh tops the index with a death toll of 4,729 last year from natural calamities, and an additional absolute loss of property worth more than $10 billion.

Pakistan is another country from South Asia that is also among the top 10 countries, coming fifth with a CRI of 13.17.

Speaking at the index release presentation, Sven Harmeling, senior adviser for climate and development of Germanwatch and author of the report, said: “Bangladesh, despite last year’s impacts, is also one of the outstanding examples of countries which have invested significantly and effectively in developing disaster reduction and adaptation strategies.”

Harmeling also praised the adaptation strategy of Bangladesh and told journalists its recent Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan can serve as a model for many other countries and deserves the support of the international community.

Based on information from the NatCat (Natural Catastrophe) service of Munich Re, the German insurance group, and from the government of Bangladesh, the authors prepared the index by combining the indicators of total number of deaths, deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, absolute losses in millions in purchasing power parities and losses per unit of gross domestic production (GDP).

Among the top ten nationson the list, Oman was in fourth position, Bolivia sixth, Papua New Guinea seventh, Vietnam eighth, Greece ninth and Tajikistan tenth.

But analysing the data of the last decade (from 1998 to 2007) the average position of Bangladesh is second with a CRI score of 10.92 following Honduras with 6.75.

Though the average death toll in Bangladesh in the last decade was 1,093, the average per 100,000 inhabitants was 0.70, compared with Honduras’s 8.5.

But in Honduras the average death toll in the last decade is only 579, almost half the Bangladeshi figure.

The average loss of property in Bangladesh due to natural disasters was put at more than four billion US dollars.

Among other South Asian countries, India is in seventh position among the countries most affected in the last decade with a death toll of 4,532 on average.

Christoph Bals, executive director of Germanwatch, and Maarten Van Aalst, from the International Red Crescent Climate Center, were also present at the presentation of the report.