Haiti Ranks Number One on Global Climate Risk Index

The Global Climate Risk Index (GCRI) rated Haiti as the number one country most affected by natural disasters in 2012. The Philippines and Pakistan followed at two and three. Haiti's worst devastation in 2012 was caused by Hurricane Sandy, which hit U.S. shores in the northernmost eastern seaboard states.

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Research and advocacy organization, Germanwatch, reports emerging nations make up the majority of nations on the index. But more prosperous nations are inching up the index as well. The U.S., the wealthiest nation in the world, ranked 12th for extreme weather events in 2012. For Russia, who ranked ninth on the index, the rating seems not to have affected either their domestic or international climate policy. Russia's laxness in social policymaking extends to human rights also: it is against gay marriage.

Germanwatch also indexes countries, afflicted by natural disasters over the past two decades. Haiti ranks number three. The GCRI determines rankings based on statistics regarding aggregate and per capita deaths, financial insolvency, and GDP losses.

Finance negotiators at the Warsaw Talks feel the pressure generated by the GCRI results to create a tool to aid the most defenseless countries like Haiti recover their losses. The Philippines' Haiyan Typhoon is a recent example of the impossibility of adapting to such apocalyptic crises that begs a financial solution. Oxfam spokesperson, Kelly Dent, said "We need money on the table . . . . it cannot be . . . loans that need to be repaid by poor countries.

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