- India was ‘poorly prepared’ to deal with ‘climate reality’, due to which it was more vulnerable to extreme natural disasters, according to the World Risk Index (WRI) 2020.
- India ranked 89th among 181 countries on the WRI 2020. The country was fourth-most-at- risk in south Asia on the index, after Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
- Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives fared better than India in their abilities to cope with extreme disasters.
- India also lagged behind these three neighbours in terms of lack of adaptive capacities or the preparedness to deal with extreme events.
- Bhutan improved its ranking the most, followed by Pakistan.
- India also slipped on strengthening adaptive capacities.
- This is worrying given that the country’s first comprehensive climate change assessment report has set alarm bells ringing about the impacts of ‘climate crises.
- Countries with a score above 52.73, were ‘very poor’ in their capacities to adapt to extreme natural disasters, according to the index.
- Hence, all south Asian countries fared poorly in the 2020 index (as compared to 2019) on strengthening their abilities to prepare and adapt to extreme events.
- The index showed that Oceania was the continent most at risk, followed by Africa and the Americas. Vanuatu was the country with the highest disaster risk worldwide. It was followed by Tonga and Dominica.
- Small island states, especially in the South Pacific and the Caribbean, were disproportionately represented among high-risk countries, due to their high exposure to extreme natural events.
- These also included countries at risk from the rise in sea level as a result of global warming.
- Qatar had the lowest risk (0.31) according to the global index.
- The report identified Africa as a hotspot of vulnerability. More than two-thirds of the most vulnerable countries in the world were located on the continent.
