Climate and weather related disasters surge five-fold over 50 years: WMO Report

GENEVA: A report released by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) said that climate change and increasingly extreme weather events have caused a surge in natural disasters over the past 50 years, where poorer countries have borne the brunt disproportionately. The report titled ‘Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate, and Water Extremes’ said that between 1970 to 2019, these natural hazards have accounted for 50 per cent of all the disasters, 45 per cent of all the deaths reported, and 74 per cent of all reported economic losses. In the mentioned time frame, over 11,000 disasters reported can be attributed to these mentioned hazards, leading to over two million deaths and $3.64 trillion in losses. Moreover, more than 91 per cent of the deaths occurred in developing countries.

The report also mentioned a good side of the situation. Owing to improving early warning systems and disaster management over the years, the number of deaths have witnessed a decrease by threefold between 1970 and 2019. It fell from 50,000 in the 1970s to less than 20,000 in the 2010s, added the report.

Meanwhile, the report established that economic losses due to these hazards have increased sevenfold between 1970 and 2019. It has gone from an average loss of around $49 million to $383 million in fifty years. The report said that storm is the most prevalent cause of damage, as it has resulted in the largest economic losses around the globe. Moreover, three of the costliest 10 disasters, all three of them hurricanes, occurred in 2017, and accounted for 35 per cent of total economic disaster losses around the world from 1970 to 2019. Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General, WMO, said that economic losses keep mounting as exposure increases. But, he added that as a ray of hope, data says that improved multi-hazard early warning systems have led to a significant reduction in mortality.

According to the report, out of the top ten disasters, droughts have proved to be the deadliest hazard during the mentioned period. Droughts have caused 6,50,000 deaths, followed by storms that led to 5,77,232 deaths; floods took 58,700 lives, and extreme temperature events during the period caused death of 55,736 people across the world. Mami Mizutori, UN Special Representative and head, UNDRR, said that there is need for more international cooperation to tackle the chronic problem of huge numbers of people being displaced each year by floods, storms and drought. He also called for a greater investment in comprehensive disaster risk management to ensure that climate change adaptation is integrated in national and local disaster risk reduction strategies.