POZNAN, Poland (Panos) – At least six Caribbean islands – Haiti, Dominican Republic, Dominica, Jamaica, Martinique and Saint Lucia – were on Thursday morning listed in the top 40 countries experiencing extreme weather impacts by the 2009 Germanwatch Global Climate Risk Index.

At a press conference at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Germanwatch said its 2009 Global Risk Index analyses how severely countries have been affected by weather-related events such as hurricanes and floods.

Out of an analysis on almost 150 countries, the six Caribbean Islands were ranked as follows:

. Dominican Republic – 12th

. Haiti – 16th

. Martinique – 24th

. Dominica – 25th

. Saint Lucia – 27th

. Jamaica – 34th

According to Germanwatch, the 2009 Climate Risk Index is based on figures from 2007 and also on an analysis of the worldwide data collection on losses caused by weather events from 1998 to 2007.

Germanwatch is an independent non-government organisation that focuses on international issues such as trade, environment and the relationship between developed and developing countries.

“The current Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reveals the highly dangerous consequences of climate change. Therefore, an analysis of already observable changes in climate conditions in different regions indicates which countries are particularly endangered,” Germanwatch said.

The impact of climate change on small island developing states such as islands of the Caribbean and the urgent need for this to be addressed has been an ongoing debate at the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting held each year by the UNFCCC.

The 2008 COP, being held here in Poland, has drawn about 9,000 participants from across the globe to discuss a replacement mechanism for the Kyoto Protocol which ends in 2012.

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement that sets binding targets for 37 industrialised countries and the European community to reduce their green house gas emissions.

According to climate modeler, Stefan Rahmstorff, Caribbean countries need to push industrialised countries to address their emissions as the small islands would face the effects of inaction.

“Fundamentally, small countries which don’t contribute to the problem should press those developed countries to help them with their adaptation measures. Those causing the emissions should be the ones that help to deal with issues,” he said shortly after presenting a paper on rising sea levels recorded since 2007 and the possible climate implications.

“I think the Caribbean region is facing a double impact from global warming because, number one, the sea level is rising, which increases the risk of storm surges. Number two, we have seen an increase in the strength of hurricanes,” said Rahmstorff, whose work focuses on the role of ocean currents in climate change.

“In 2008. we have seen a number of new records and these two things multiply each other. so I think the Caribbean is one of the hotspots suffering from climate change,” he said.

Since the start of the conference on Monday, Caribbean islands have been pushing to have their issues addressed and have been speaking through key representatives such as:

. Antigua, which heads the 143 nation G-77 and China group discussions;

.Grenada, which leads the 43 states of the Alliance of Small Island Developing States; and

. Jamaica, which has representatives on the Clean Development Mechanism and Adaptation Fund Boards, respectively.