UN: Climate Change has led to the doubling of natural disasters since 2000

To mark the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction which is celebrated on October 13, the United Nations published a report showing how climate change has doubled natural disasters since the year 2000. As per the report, in the years 2000 to 2019, there were a total of 7,348 major disasters that took the lives of 1.23 million and affected 4.2 billion people. This further resulted in a global economic loss of US$2.97 trillion. 

An increase in natural disasters recorded

The rise is considered to be a sharp one when compared with the previous 22 years from 1980 and 1999. A total of 4,212 disasters were recorded in between these years, claiming approximately 1.19 million lives and affecting 3.25 billion. Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters from the University of Louvain in Belgium, Professor Debarati Guha-Sapir said, “This report covers the first twenty years of this century and does not include biological hazards like COVID-19 but it clearly highlights the level of human suffering and economic loss that result from failure to adapt to climate change and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. If this level of growth in extreme weather events continues over the next twenty years, the future of mankind looks very bleak indeed”.

He added, “We will have to live with the consequences of existing levels of climate change for a long time to come and there are many practical measures that can be taken to reduce the burden of disaster losses especially on low and middle-income countries that lack resources and are most exposed to economic losses on a scale that undermines their efforts to eradicate poverty and to provide good quality social services including health and education”. 

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As per the report, the past 20 years have seen a major surge in the number of floods as there was an increase recorded from 1,389 to 3,254. Storms also recorded an increase from 1,457 to 2,034. According to iddrr.undrr.org, the report records “major increases in other categories including drought, wildfires and extreme temperature events”. 

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The report further focuses on the rise in geo-physical events like earthquakes and tsunamis. The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mami Mizutori, said that people have become 'willfully destructive'. She added that this is the only conclusion one can draw after overviewing the events from the past 20 years. She termed COVID-19 as the "latest proof" which shows how political and business leaders should tune into the world around them”.

Read: Climate Change Concerns Raised At UNGA, Leaders Urged Not To Ignore It Amid COVID-19

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