Extreme weather can ravage a country — it kills people, injures them and destroys expensive infrastructure, businesses and crops. A scenario that is intensifying with climate change. 

The new Climate Risk Index by the NGO Germanwatch, which focuses on climate mitigation, compiled data on these effects from 1993 to 2022.

It found that almost 800,000 people were killed in storms, floods, droughts, heat waves and wildfires. And the economic damage totaled nearly $4.2 trillion (€4.07 trillion), a value that has been adjusted to inflation.  

At the top of the ranking: Dominica, China and Honduras. 

Human impact and economic loss 

“The aim of the Climate Risk Index is to contextualize international climate policy with a view to the actual risks that countries are facing,” said Lina Adil, policy adviser at Germanwatch and co-author of the report. 

There are different types of risks nations face that will put them at the top of the ranking. On one hand, there is the human impact: fatalities, injuries, homelessness and displacement. Then there are economic losses. The two categories are weighed equally. 

Dominica, the hurricane-prone Caribbean country leading the ranking, has taken huge economic hits from storms in the 30-year-period Germanwatch studied. The report cited Hurricane Maria, which caused damages of up to $1.8 billion in 2018 — 270% of Dominica’s GDP. 

The island state also has a high number of relative fatalities, which means many people die, considering its small population size. 

China and Honduras both hit hard

China is second on the index because significant parts of its huge population have been killed or otherwise affected by frequent heat waves, typhoons and flooding. The 2016 floods killed more than 100 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more. 

Honduras, third on the index, feels the effects of extreme weather particularly hard as one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch killed more than 14,000 people and destroyed 70% of crops and infrastructure.

"It happened more than two decades ago, but it had such a severe impact that we still talk about it today," said Diego Obando Bonilla, professor of climate action at Zamora University in Honduras.

It caused $7 billion in damages, which put a halt to the country's development process. One area that is particularly vulnerable to the hurricanes and droughts hitting Honduras is agriculture.

"It's one of the most important sectors here, after remittances. You have coffee and bananas, which are exported, but also basic grains like corn or beans, which affect people’s daily consumption or sometimes even sustenance," said Obando Bonilla. 

Climate change doesn’t discriminate 

Countries in the Global South may face the most existential threats. But the index’s top 10 also include high-income countries like Italy, Greece and Spain. And in 2022 specifically, these countries rank even higher, mostly because of intense heat waves. 

"The results show that all countries are affected worldwide. It does not differentiate between Global North and South," said Germanwatch’s Adil. "The main message there is that the Global North is not ready yet with disaster risk management and with adaptation." 

The report cites extreme floods in Germany’s Ahrtal (2021) and in Valencia, Spain, (2024) as examples of European authorities being too late to declare a state of emergency — with disastrous consequences. In both cases, more than 100 people died and many more had their lives upended. 

For Adil, this makes high-income countries’ responsibility twofold. 

"There is a responsibility for the Global North to adapt and manage its risks at home better, but at the same time assist and provide for the Global South as they have accounted for the least emissions worldwide."

That also applies to their efforts to cut emissions. Because as long as high-polluter nations keep burning fossil fuels, the extreme weather pushing countries up on the Climate Risk Index is predicted to hit harder and more frequently.

Edited by: Tamsin Walker