EM‐DAT provides data on over 22,000 mass disasters around the world since 1900.<sup>11</sup> We use for our analysis the ratio of damages to GDP (30‐year median) as the indicator of countries’ vulnerability to extreme weather events. Even though this is a backward‐looking measure which is silent on the attributability of these events to climate change, it is a good indicator of countries’ exposure to the impact of climate change through increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.

Floods and storms are the most frequent severe weather events, with the East Asia and Pacific region showing the highest number of events (Figure 5). EM‐DAT data show that since the 1980s 45 percent of all incidents were floods, while storms accounted for 34 percent. The rest of the extreme weather conditions such as droughts, heat waves, landslides and wildfires accounted for 20 percent of events (Figure 5B). While all regions faced an increase in extreme weather events since the 1980s, East Asia and the Pacific experienced considerably more disasters than any other region (Figure 5D). The second most affected region is Latin America and the Caribbean, closely followed by Europe and Central Asia.

As countries faced an increase in disasters over time (Figures 5A and C),<sup>12</sup> the associated fatalities fell around the globe, suggesting that countries adopted disaster response and emergency strategies to minimize the number of human casualties. Simultaneously, the total number of affected people (including those who became homeless or were injured) increased over time, though disproportionately more in EAP and SA, reflecting the overall large populations of those regions. Sub‐Saharan Africa also experienced a rise in total victims since the 1980s.

Extreme weather events result in material damages that also rose over time and were not equally distributed around the globe with EAP affected most. For instance, since the 1980s, median annual economic losses due to disasters totaled about US$18 billion in EAP and US$5 billion in ECA (Figure 5E).

# _Gradual global warming_

Analysis of countries’ vulnerability to the effects of gradual global warming and readiness to adapt to climate change is based primarily on the Notre Dame‐Global Adaptation Index (ND‐GAIN) (Figure 6). This index shows countries’ vulnerability to climate disruptions and their readiness to leverage private and public sector investment for climate action. The vulnerability indicator covers the vulnerability of six life‐ supporting sectors to climate change: food, water, health, ecosystem service, human habitat, and infrastructure. The indicator of readiness to improve resilience covers economic, governance, and social readiness. The vulnerability and readiness indicators cover 182 and 184 countries, respectively for the period 1995 to the present.

Since 1995, countries’ vulnerability to climate change, as measured by the ND Vulnerability Index, declined overall and across all regions (Figure 6B). This decrease in vulnerability reflects an increase in adaptive capacity in many countries. Yet, some countries are disproportionately more vulnerable to climate risks, such as those in SA, EAP, and SSA. These regions also are the most exposed to climate‐related risks in the form of extreme weather events.

> 11 https://www.emdat.be/

> 12 It is worth noting that part of the increase in events could be due to improved measurement and tracking of extreme weather conditions around the world over time.

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