Africa hardest hit by 2015 extreme weather events: report

Africa was the hardest hit continent by weather events in 2015, according to Global Climate Risk Index.

Presenting its 12th report at the climate summit in the Moroccan city of Marrakech, Germanwatch's Sonke Kreft said four out of the 10 most impacted countries globally are African, namely Mozambique, Malawi, Ghana and Madagascar.

Countries with very low emissions are the most affected by these extreme events, he said.

However, he revealed that heat waves claimed the lives of many people in both developing and developed countries.

People are suffering from lack of protection and insufficient disaster management, especially in less developed countries, he said.

The report noted that from 1996 to 2015, there were more than 530,000 deaths caused by more than 11,000 extreme weather events.

The hardest hit countries during the same period were Honduras, Myanmar and Haiti.

"These results remind us of the importance to support resilience policy to mitigate the negative effects of climate events on people and countries," he said.

The COP 22, held in Marrakech from Nov. 7 to 18, will focus on action items in order to implement the priorities of the Paris Agreement, especially those related to adaptation, transparency, technology transfer, mitigation, capacity building and loss and damages.

The Paris Agreement, which was adopted in December 2015 at COP 21 in Paris, was ratified in October by 96 countries and the European Union and entered into force on Nov. 4.

Around 20,000 delegates, 30,000 civil society members from some 200 countries are gathering at the COP 22 climate change conference. Endit