Thailand ranks ninth on Global Climate Risk Index for “extreme weather events”

When it rains, it pours in Thailand… and torrential downpours during the country’s monsoon season is known to cause severe flooding, damaging property and leading to injuries, sometimes deaths.

The weather in Thailand is considered so intense that the country is ranked ninth on the Global Climate Risk Index 2021 on nations most affected by “extreme weather events” between 2010 to 2019. Extreme weather is described as storms, wildfires, droughts or other weather that are unusually severe and impactful.

This index provides a measurement of how vulnerable countries are to climate related issues like extreme weather events. It is also intended to be a tool that governments can use to better understand their exposure to climate risks.

Thailand’s high placement on this index comes at an especially relevant time. Right now world leaders, including Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha, are meeting in Glasgow at the COP26 conference to form policy on addressing and combating climate change. PM Prayut announced that Thailand has plans to focus greater attention on environmental issues in the future.

The Lancet Countdown report was released last month, which outlined how environmental issues are having an increasingly negative impact on human health and economic activity. These issues also disproportionately affect the poor around the world.

The index ranked the top 10 countries that were most affected by extreme weather events:

1. Puerto Rico
2. Myanmar
3. Haiti
4. Philippines
5. Mozambique
6. Bahamas
7. Bangladesh
8. Pakistan
9. Thailand
10. Nepal

Tropical storms, hurricanes and flooding were the leading causes of global environmental damage in 2019, according to the report. These are most likely results of increasing temperatures. The Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning said that Thailand needs to do more to mitigate these destructive weather events.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post