Africa hit hardest by last year’s extreme climate events – report

Africa was the “most affected” region on earth by last year’s extreme climate events, according to the 12th edition of the Global Climate Risk Index. The findings were released, yesterday, on the second day of the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference (COP22) summit in Marrakech, Morocco. The Germanwatch Global Climate Risk Index 2017 is based on the most recent annual dataset from the MunichRe NatCatSERVICE and socio-economic data from the IMF’s World Economic Outlook. The survey features both short-term and long-term components, analysing countries most affected by hydrological, meteorological and climatological extreme weather events in the year 2015 and the period of 1996-2015. According to the index, four out of the 10 most countries impacted by climate change, globally, are African. “Host continent of climate summit (was) mostly affected by last year’s floodings. Since 1996 climatic events claimed more than 530,000 lives, and resulted in multi-trillion dollar damages,” the report reads in part. Some of the African countries, which were “hit hardest” by extreme weather events in 2015, include Mozambique (first), Malawi (third), Ghana and Madagascar (both eigth), globally. Germanwatch’s Sönke Kreft, the main author of the index, also noted that, “Heat waves claimed most lives last year.” He said more than 4,300 deaths in India and more than 3,300 deaths in France show that both developing and developed countries are impacted by extraordinary temperatures. “Increases in heavy precipitation, flooding and heat waves are to be expected in a warming world. People are suffering from lack of protection and insufficient disaster management especially in poor countries,” Kreft said. However, Kreft said the distribution of climatic events is not “fair”, because the most affected countries are developing countries in the ‘low’ or ‘lower-middle’ income category, yet these nations have very low emissions, making them least responsible for climate change. Climate change and Rwanda Rwanda has also had its own share of the climate change consequences. Information from the Ministry for Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs shows that from January to May 9, at least 81 people died, 74 were injured, some 1,398 houses destroyed while over 1,500 hectares of crops got damaged as a result of disasters, mainly heavy rain, winds, as well as landslides. In May alone, at least 49 people were killed by floods and landslides triggered by heavy rain that hit different parts of the country. Gakenke is among the districts that were recently hit hardest by disasters, with landslides there having killed 34 people and left 1,355 others homeless in May. According to Rwanda Meteorology Agency, 2015 was the hottest year in the recent past. The agency predicted that it might get even hotter over the coming decades as more and more heat trapping greenhouse gases emitted by human activities accumulate in the atmosphere. The agency also said 15 of the 16 hottest years have occurred this century. While 2011-2015 was the hottest five-year period on record. Meanwhile, Kreft said in Germanwatch’s 20-year analysis of weather extremes, nine out of the 10 most affected countries are developing countries in the ‘low’ or ‘lower-middle’ income category. “The hardest hit countries in the period 1996-2015 were Honduras, Myanmar and Haiti,” he said. From 1996 to 2015, there were more than 530,000 deaths caused by more than 11,000 extreme weather events. “The results of the Global Climate Risk Index remind us of the importance to support resilience policy, to mitigate the negative effects of climatic events on people and countries,” Kreft added. While speaking at the opening of COP22, on Monday, Patricia Espinosa, the executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change, said there is need for developed countries and climate funds to financially support climate change mitigations agenda in developing countries. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Africa hit hardest by last year’s extreme climate events – report