Disasters driven by weather up 5 times in last 50 years: UN

GENEVA: Weather-related disasters have skyrocketed over the past 50 years, causing far more damage even as better warning systems have meant fewer deaths, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

A report from the UN’S World Meteorological Organization (WMO) examined mortality and economic losses from weather, climate and water extremes between 1970 and 2019.

It found that such disasters have increased fivefold during that period, driven largely by a warming planet, and warned the upward trend would continue.

“The number of weather, climate and water extremes are increasing and will become more frequent and severe in many parts of the world as a result of climate change,” said WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas.

In total, there were more than 11,000 disasters attributed to these hazards globally since 1970, causing more than two million deaths and some $3.64 trillion in losses.

On average, a disaster linked to weather, climate and water extremes has thus occurred every single day over the past 50 years, killing 115 people and causing $202 million in daily losses, the WMO report found.

More than 91% of the deaths occurred in developing countries, it said.

Droughts were responsible for the largest losses of human life during the period, alone accounting for some 650,000 deaths, while storms have left over 577,000 people dead.

Floods have meanwhile killed nearly 59,000 over the past 50 years and extreme temperatures have killed close to 56,000, the report found.

On a positive note, the report found that even as the number of weather and climate-related disasters ballooned over the past half-century, the number of associated deaths declined nearly threefold. The toll fell from over 50,000 deaths each year in the 1970s to fewer than 20,000 in the 2010s, WMO said.