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Bangladesh worst climate-hit

Global Climate Risk Index shows around 8,241 killed annually in last decade

PINAKI ROY from Copenhagen
Natural disasters have caused the greatest loss of life in Bangladesh over the last decade than in any other country of the world, according to the Global Climate Risk Index (CRI), 2010 published yesterday in Copenhagen.
An average of 8,241 people died each year in 244 instances of extreme weather conditions in Bangladesh with cost of damage $2,189 million a year and loss of GDP 1.81 percent.
In 2008, there were 654 natural disasters worldwide, causing around 93,700 deaths and cost of damage S123 billion.
The NGO Germanwatch presented the CRI findings during the second day of the United Nations Climate Change Summit, 2009 in Denmark.
Germanwatch's index estimates that throughout the world, 6 lakh people have died in 11,000 cases of natural disasters over the past 10 years.
The estimated global financial cost of natural disasters is $1.7 trillion.
After Bangladesh, Myanmar and Honduras were the nations most affected by natural disasters over the last decade.
In Myanmar, the average annual death toll is 4,522 and the cost ofdamageS707 million.
Other vulnerable countries include Vietnam, Nicaragua,
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Haiti, India, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines and China.
None of the 20 countries most vulnerable to natural disasters are developed nations.
Saleemul Haq, senior fellow of the climate change group at the International Institute of Environment and Development, said, "The climate risk index is a very difficult study to produce.
"It includes only those who have died as a result of natural disasters: the millions who survived but are nevertheless suffering are not taken into account"
Klaus Milke, vice-chairman of the board of Germanwatch, and Christoph Bals, executive director of Germanwatch, indicated that countries prone to natural disasters require additional funds to cope with the impacts of climate change.
When asked about the demands made by Bangladesh and other less developed countries to allocate a fund for those most vulnerable, Saleemul Haq said it would require political consensus and that this would be difficultto achieve.
He said, "The world's leaders would have to agree on the criteria, such as the effects of melting glaciers, droughts, floods and cyclones. Each country would state that these conditions affect them greatly."
Bangladesh's 1970 Bhola cyclone is the fourth worst natural disaster in recorded history and it was also the world's most deadly tropical cyclone.
The cyclone killed 500,000 people and devastated many offshore islands.
In 1991, at least 138,000 people were killed and 10 million made homeless following a cyclone in the Chittagong district.
In the CRJ score Bangladesh got 8, Myanmar 8.25, Honduras 12, Vietnam 18.53, Nicaragua 21, Haiti 22.83, India 25.83, Dominican Republic 27.58, the Philippines 27.67 and China 28.58.