New Delhi: India ranks ninth among the countries in the world that are most severely affected by extreme weather events like heat waves, storms, and floods over the past 30 years, a new report has found.The Climate Risk Index was released by Germanwatch, an independent development, environmental, and human rights organisation, at Belem in Brazil, against the backdrop of the COP30 climate negotiations.Almost all countries in the top group of the ranking are located in the Global South, the report finds.Around 40% of all people worldwide – over three billion – currently live in the 11 countries that have been most severely affected by extreme weather events such as heat waves, storms, and floods over the past 30 years, it finds.These countries include India (ranked 9th) and the world’s largest carbon emitter, China (11th).The report highlights India’s high absolute fatalities and economic losses, as well as many people affected, both in absolute terms and per 100,000 population.It finds that there were nearly 430 extreme weather events in the three decades examined, causing economic losses of nearly US $ 170 billion (inflation-adjusted), nearly 1.3 billion affected people, and 80,000+ fatalities.It notes how floods and landslides resulting from heavy monsoons have displaced millions and damaged agriculture, and cyclones have devastated coastal areas, underscoring India’s diverse climate risks.Among notable events with high fatalities and/or economic losses it includes the 1998 Gujarat and 1999 Odisha cyclones, Cyclones Hudhud and Amphan in 2014 and 2020, the 1993 floods in northern India, Uttarakhand floods in 2013, and severe floods in 2019. Recurring and unusually intense heat waves, all with temperatures around 50°C, claimed many lives in 1998, 2002, 2003, and 2015, it said.Extreme weather events are now continued threats in countries like India, the report says.The Philippines, which is suffering through the major typhoon, Fung-wong, is seventh.The first industrialised country is France, at 12th spot. Then are Italy (16th) and the US (18th).In total, the index records over 9,700 extreme weather events between 1995 and 2024, with more than 830.000 fatalities and over US $ 4.5 trillion in direct damage, adjusted for inflation.Laura Schäfer, one of the CRI’s authors, lists heat waves and storms as events that pose the greatest threat to human life. Storms, she adds, have caused by far the greatest monetary damage, while floods were responsible for the greatest number of people affected by extreme weatherSuccessive extreme weather events make countries like India particularly vulnerable.“Countries such as Haiti, the Philippines, and India – all of which are among the ten most affected countries in the CRI – face particular challenges. They are hit by floods, heat waves, or storms so regularly that entire regions can hardly recover from the impacts until the next event hits,” explains Vera Künzel, co-author of the index. “When more funding to address loss and damage is negotiated here at COP, the focus is on countries like these. Without more long-term support – including for adapting to the climate crisis – they will face insurmountable challenges.”At the top of the index for the period 1995–2024 is Dominica, a very small Caribbean island nation that has been hit by devastating hurricanes several times. Myanmar ranks second.David Eckstein, co-author of the CRI, stressed that the results demonstrate the necessity of conventions like COP30 to close the ambition gap and help Global South countries with the finances necessary from wealthy nations.