Overview
- Germanwatch recorded more than 9,700 extreme-weather events from 1995 to 2024 that caused about 830,000 deaths and roughly $4.5 trillion in direct losses, with heatwaves and storms posing the greatest danger to lives and storms driving the largest property damage.
- Dominica ranks as the most affected country over the 30-year period, with Myanmar and Honduras also among the worst-hit, underscoring the heavy toll on small island and lower-income states.
- For 2024, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada top the annual list after Hurricane Beryl, with Chad third due to months-long flooding.
- Germany places 29th in the long-term index largely because of deadly heatwaves, with approximately 24,400 weather-related deaths and about €112 billion in damages reported since 1995.
- Germanwatch builds the index from EM-DAT and global economic data and cautions that victim and damage totals do not directly apportion causes, even as the findings are cited at COP30 to argue for scaled-up support for adaptation and loss and damage.