India lost $79 billion in natural disasters: UN
US leads with $944b in losses followed by China at $492b
United Nations, Oct. 11: India suffered a whopping $79.5 billion economic loss due to climate-related disasters in the last 20 years, according to a UN report that highlights the impact of extreme weather events on the global economy.
The report titled Economic Losses, Poverty and Disasters 1998-2017 was compiled by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
The greatest economic losses were experienced by the US at $944.8 billion, followed by China at $492.2 billion, Japan at $376.3 billion, India at $79.5 billion and Puerto Rico at $71.7 billion.
Storms, floods and earthquakes place three European countries in the top 10 nations for economic losses: France, $48.3 billion; Germany, $57.9 billion and Italy $56.6 billion. Thailand with $52.4 billion and Mexico at $46.5 billion complete the list.
In terms of occurrences, climate-related disasters also dominate the picture, accounting for 91 per cent of all 7,255 major recorded events between 1998 and 2017. Floods (43.4 per cent) and storms (28.2 per cent) are the two most frequently occurring disasters.
During this period, 1.3 million people lost their lives and 4.4 billion people were injured, rendered homeless, displaced or in need of emergency assistance.
563 earthquakes, including related tsunamis, accounted for 56 per cent of the total deaths or 747,234 lives lost, the report said.
The report was released ahead of the International Day for Disaster Reduction on October 13.
In his message for the day, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia, it was clear that disasters have a steep human cost as millions of people are displaced every year, losing their homes and jobs because of extreme weather events and earthquakes. “A better understanding of economic losses from extreme weather events can help to generate greater action on climate change and increased ambition on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
“Measuring economic losses can also motivate governments to do more to achieve the targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, which seeks a substantial reduction in disaster losses by 2030,” he said.
Guterres said that reducing the economic losses from disasters has the power to transform lives and contribute greatly to the eradication of poverty.
A key target of the global plan to reduce disaster losses, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, is to reduce economic losses from disasters and the report highlights the fact that 63 per cent of disaster reports contain no economic data.