Webdesk:
UN agency said that extreme weather had killed over 2 million people. As well as inflicted $4.3 trillion in economic losses over the past 50 years.
Between 1970 and 2021, weather, climate, and water-related hazards caused about 12,000 disasters. It is according to the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
Climate shocks and extreme weather caused 90% of deaths and 60% of economic losses in developing countries.
WMO noted least developed countries and small island developing states paid a “disproportionately” high cost for their economies.
“Unfortunately, the most vulnerable communities bear the brunt of weather, climate and water-related hazards,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas remarked.
WMO claimed that various disasters over the past 50 years had cost least-developed countries 30% of GDP.
One in five disasters in small island developing states had an impact “equivalent to more than 5%” of GDP, with some erasing GDP entirely.
Over the previous 50 years, extreme weather, climate, and water events killed about one million people in Asia, more than half in Bangladesh.
Droughts killed 95% of 733,585 African climate disaster victims, according to WMO.
WMO noted that early warnings and coordinated disaster management have reduced catastrophe deaths. Taalas said early warnings save lives.
The UN body also reported reduced deaths in 2020 and 2021 than the preceding decade.
Taalas cited last week’s severe cyclonic storm Mocha, which devastated Myanmar and Bangladesh’s coastal areas and killed “the poorest of the poor,” as an example.
The WMO chief stated early warnings and catastrophe management have eliminated these catastrophic mortality rates.
Early warnings are the “low-hanging fruit” of climate change adaptation since they reduce damage by 30% with a tenfold return on investment.
The quadrennial World Meteorological Congress
The quadrennial World Meteorological Congress, which opened in Geneva on Monday, focused on implementing the UN’s Early Warnings for All initiative. WMO released its latest findings on the human and economic cost of weather-induced disasters.
By 2027, early warning services should reach everyone on Earth. UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced it at the COP27 climate change meeting in Sharm al-Sheikh last November.
Early warning systems cover only half the planet, leaving Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries behind.
The UN chief convened agency heads and partners to accelerate Early Warnings for All earlier this year.
The effort will begin in 2023 in 30 high-risk countries, nearly half of which are in Africa.
