The world’s 10 costliest weather disasters of 2020 saw insured damages worth $150bn, topping the figure for 2019 and reflecting a long-term impact of global warming, The Guarrdian reports, citing recent findings.
Weather disasters 'cost $150bn in 2020'
STEPANAKERT, DECEMBER 29, ARTSAKHPPRESS: The same disasters claimed at least 3,500 lives and displaced more than 13.5 million people.
From Australia’s out-of-control wildfires to a record number of Atlantic hurricanes through November, the true cost of the year’s climate-enhanced calamities was in fact far higher because most losses were uninsured.
Not surprisingly, the burden fell disproportionately on poor nations, according to the annual tally from the charity Christian Aid, entitled Count the cost of 2020: a year of climate breakdown.
Only 4% of economic losses from climate-impacted extreme events in low-income countries were insured, compared with 60% in high-income economies, the report said, citing a study last month in The Lancet.
“Whether floods in Asia, locusts in Africa, or storms in Europe and the Americas, climate change has continued to rage in 2020,” said Christian Aid’s climate policy lead, Kat Kramer.
