MANILA, Philippines--THE PHILIPPINES was the world's top climate victim in 2006, the year in which it was battered by storms that killed over 1,000 persons and that resulted in losses worth billions of dollars.

It was, in fact, the most affected among the countries that suffered from storms, floods and weather extremes in that year, according to the Global Climate Risk Index of the environment and development organization Germanwatch. (It ranked 51st in 2005.)

The report was presented by Germanwatch and Munich Reinsurance at UN climate negotiations in Bali, Indonesia, on Tuesday.

"In both the Philippines and Indonesia, there were almost 1,300 deaths and damages ranging in the billions due to storms and floods," Sven Harmeling, author of the study, said in a statement on the Germanwatch website.

The report identifies the countries most affected by extreme weather events based on the total number of deaths, deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, losses in US dollars, and losses per unit of the gross domestic product.

The ranking of the most affected countries was dominated by Asian countries. Behind the Philippines in the top 10 of 2006 were North Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Ethiopia, India, China, Afghanistan, the United States and Romania.

In that year, 12,422 people died from 953 weather events worldwide that wrought damage amounting to $47.6 billion. The five countries with more than 1,000 deaths accounted for more than half of the worldwide deaths, the report said.

It also said that in the Philippines, a series of storms left a death toll of at least 1,267, equivalent to 1.46 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, and losses totaling $4.5 billion.

Drastic year
The Germanwatch report said both Vietnam and the Philippines considered 2006 a drastic year, with losses of between three and five times the average of 1987 to 2006.

"The losses in Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia are also much more severe than the mere expression of 'million-dollar losses' would suggest," it said.

In 2006, strong typhoons battered the country and left a high death toll and staggering damage to crops and property.

Mudslides triggered by heavy rains buried a community in Guinsaugon, Southern Leyte, in February of that year, killing over 100 persons. Nine months later, Supertyphoon "Reming" (Durian) pummeled the Bicol and Southern Tagalog regions, leaving about 1,000 dead and missing.

In 2006, some 8,568,968 Filipinos were affected by extreme weather events, second to China's 88,325,874 in the Asian region, according to the report.

On the other hand, Peter Hoeppe, head of the Geo-Risk research department of Munich Reinsurance--whose weather extremes database was used in the Germanwatch report--said the events in one year "do not allow the direct conclusion of a causal relation with climate change."

'Climate hotspot'
But he said the increasing incidence of wind storms, floods and other extreme weather events such as heat waves and droughts "shows an increasing danger."

Von Hernandez, campaign director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said the Germanwatch report validated the fact that the Philippines was a "climate hotspot."

"This should serve as a warning to our government leaders to finally take their heads out of the sand and face the urgency of putting measures and resources in place to help disaster-prone areas deal with the impacts of climate change," Hernandez said.

He said the government should immediately pass the Renewable Energy bill as part of its contribution to the global effort to help avert more climate change disasters.

Greenpeace has maintained that the passage of a "strong renewable energy law" was crucial to a "low-carbon, sustainable-energy future" because this would allow bigger investment in renewable energy.

Only little steps taken
Government officials have agreed on the need to pass the bill, but have taken little steps to move this forward, Greenpeace said.

But while the Philippines ranked No. 1 in the list of affected countries in 2006, it wasn't among the 10 countries most affected by extreme weather events from 1997 to 2006. These countries were Honduras, Nicaragua, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Dominican Republic, Haiti, India, Venezuela, France and Germany.

"In average over the last 10 years, Honduras, Nicaragua and Bangladesh have experienced the greatest impacts," the Germanwatch report said.