PH is 10th most affected country by extreme weather events in last 30 years — Climate Risk Index 2025 

If there's one thing to learn from Germanwatch's 2025 Climate Risk Index report (CRI), it's that climate change is not a problem in the faraway future. It's already happening now, and in the Philippines, it's already a lived reality. 

Published on Wednesday, the CRI 2025 showed the Philippines as the 10th country most affected by extreme weather events in the last 30 years.

The report highlighted how the Philippines is "hit by multiple tropical cyclones in every year between 1993-2022," enduring a total of 372 extreme weather events that caused $34B in losses throughout given 30-year period. 

The CRI 2025 singled out 2013's Haiyan as the most destructive typhoon totaling some $13B in damages and 7,000 fatalities. 

Dominica, China and Honduras topped the list respectively, with Myanmar ranking 4th and Italy in the 5th spot. 

India, Greece, Spain and Vanuatu complete the top 10 for the 30-year period between 1993 and 2022.

According to the CRI 2025, all countries in the world have been affected by extreme weather events with floods, storms, heat waves, and drought having the most impact.

"Floods were responsible for half of the people affected, while storms caused, by far, the most significant economic losses (56% or $2.33T)," the report added.

Nearly 800,000 people were killed worldwide in the past 30 years due to more than 9,400 extreme weather events worldwide. Economic damages from those events totaled $4.2T.

The figure is worthing noting down: At COP29 last November, developing countries including the Philippines put forward $1.3 trillion in public finance as their ask. By the end of the two-week climate negotiations in Baku, Azerbaijan, only a $300B deal was delivered. 

"Over the long term, the ranking shows that extreme weather events' impacts particularly affect Global South countries. With five countries, the lower middle-income group is the largest country group among the 1- most affected countries, including three Small Island Developing States/Least Developed Countries, where coping capacities are significantly lower," the report said.

In the 30-year period, CRI 2025 divided the countries into two groups: most affected by unusual extreme events and affected by recurring extreme events or continuous events. The Philippines, along with China and Pakistan belong to the second.

The CRI 2025 says, "There are clear indications that climate change contributes to transforming unusually extreme events into continuous events" creating something of a new normal.

But climate science shows climate change increases the risk for both categories, and with scientists saying the world may already have entered 1.5C warming era, we'll have to brace for more impact, and this "new normal."

According to the IPCC 6th Synthesis Report, "human-caused climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe. This has led to widespread adverse impacts and related loss and damages to nature and people."

The CRI 2025 is the latest from Germanwatch, an independent development, environmental, and human rights NGO and think tank that advocates sustainable global development based on social equity, respect for nature, and economic justice since 1991.

CRI is supposed to be an annual list since 2006, but was last published in 2021, where the Philippines ranked 4th most affected country in the world. According to Germanwatch, the four-year break between editions was due to the "constraints with the data provider." 

CRI 2025 also listed down the most affected countries for 2022 alone, with Pakistan topping the list for the year 2022.

The 2022 list is telling: Seven of the 10 top countries are in the high-income country group. Italy, Greece and Spain are in the top 5, and USA is in the 7th spot.

The backward-looking index examines climate-related extreme weather events' absolute and relative impacts to create a country ranking. It is based on six indicators: fatalities, people affected (injured and otherwise adversely affected), and economic losses - in absolute and relative terms, respectively.   

The CRI ranking is based on the best publicly available historical data set on extreme weather events' impacts including the International Disaster Database (Em-dat) and socio-economic data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

“This year’s Climate Risk Index clearly shows how all countries must improve their climate risk management to be better prepared for extreme weather events and minimize harm to people and economic damages," Vera Künzel, co-author of the Climate Risk Index and Senior Advisor on Climate Change Adaptation and Human Rights at Germanwatch said in a statement.

"The most vulnerable countries urgently need increased financial support from the international community to avert the severe consequences of climate impacts. In times of geopolitical turmoil and waning commitments, wealthier countries must step up, live up to their responsibilities, and provide the necessary support to ensure a more resilient and sustainable future," she added.

— GMA Integrated News