Africa was hit hardest by extreme weather events in 2015. According to the 12th edition of the Global Climate Risk Index, four out of the ten most impacted countries globally are Africa countries -m Mozambique (Rank 1), Malawi (Rank 3), Ghana and Madagascar (both Rank 8).
“Flooding especially affected the hosting continent of this year’s climate summit”, says Germanwatch’s Sönke Kreft, main author of the Index. Heat waves claimed most lives last year in the current year.
The report unveiled Tuesday at the ongoing Conference of Parties (COP22) in Marakech 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. Kreft: “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, says Kreft. “The distribution of climatic events is not fair. In our 20 year analysis of weather extremes nine out of the ten most affected countries are developing countries in the ‘low’ or ‘lower-middle’ income category. These are mostly countries with very low emissions, which are least responsible for climate change.” The hardest hit countries in the period 1996-2015 were Honduras, Myanmar and Haiti.
From 1996 to 2015, there were more than 530,000 deaths caused by more than 11,000 extreme weather events, as well as nearly 3.3 trillion US-Dollars (in Purchasing Power Parities, PPP) in damages.
The Global Climate Risk Index 2017 is published at the outset of this year’s climate summit in Marrakech, Morocco. Kreft adds: “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”.
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. It features both a short-term and long-term component, analysing the countries most affected by hydrological, meteorological and climatological extreme weather events in the year 2015 and the period of 1996-2015.
The twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) and the twelfth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP12) opened today, November 7, at the Bab Ighli village site in Marrakech with the election of COP 22/CMP12 President Salaheddine Mezouar and the official transition from the French COP21 to Moroccan COP22 Presidency.
The official opening ceremony to the Marrakech Climate Change Conference featured remarks by COP22 President Salaheddine Mezouar, COP21 President Segolene Royal, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Chair, Hoesung Lee and the Mayor of Marrakech, Mohammed Larbi Belcadi, followed by a performance by a group of local drummers to set the beat for climate action over the next 11 days of the conference.
Segolene Royal opened the session by celebrating the entry into force of the Paris Agreement on November 4 and praised the close coordination between France and Morocco over the past year in the lead up to COP22.
“The rapid entry into force of the Paris Agreement is unprecedented and sends a powerful signal of world’s commitment to combatting climate change.” Underscored the COP21 President.
Salahedinne Mezouar welcomed all participants to Marrakech for two weeks of climate action including the historic first meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement that will take place on November 15. The COP22 President called on all participants to commit to concrete climate initiatives and actions to support the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change especially in Africa, least developed and small island developing states. He announced that during COP22 Morocco, along with a number of partners will launch the National Determined Contributions (NDC) Partnership to build capacity and direct climate finance flows towards the most vulnerable. He reiterated the importance of accelerating climate finance, innovation, transfer and capacity building to create the low-carbon economy the planet needs to stay below the 2 degree Celsius mark of global warming.
“Paris gave us a global commitment to climate change and COP22 in Marrakech will give us more ambitious climate action. We must all rise to the challenge in support of the most vulnerable countries in the fight against climate change” underscored the COP22 President.
Patricia Espinosa emphasized the historic significance of Morocco and Marrakech as host of the UN Climate Change Conference. COP7, held in Marrakech in 2001 produced the Marrakech Accords and COP22 will feature CMA1 and the first global climate action agenda that will feature thematic showcase events, dialogues and a high-level event to call on more coordinated and ambitious climate action between States and civil society.
“We need to work together with speed and scale on all fronts” said the UNFCCC Executive Director.
The opening ceremony was brought to a close by an invigorating performance by a local traditional Moroccan drumming group, “ Ostina Tono,” who set the rhythm for the two-week climate action conference in the Ochre City.
