Extreme Weather Due to Climate Change Caused $165 Billion in Economic Losses, Affecting 1.2 Billion People Worldwide

For the past 20 years, the harm caused by the climate catastrophe through extreme weather has cost $16 million. The estimations were created by integrating data on how much global warming exacerbated extreme weather occurrences with economic data on losses. The study is the first to determine the worldwide cost of human-caused global warming.

Massive Economic Losses Due to Climate Change

(Photo : Getty Images/Dimitar Dilkoff)

The findings are nothing short of worrisome, with an average yearly cost of $140 billion from 2000 to 2019, with large variances from year to year.

The most recent statistics from 2022 show an even larger cost: $280 billion in climate-related costs. According to the researchers, the estimates are likely to be significantly understated due to a lack of data, particularly in low-income nations. Additional climate impacts, such as agriculture output losses and sea level rise, were not included.

The study also discovered that over a period of two decades, 1.2 billion people were affected by extreme weather as a result of the climate problem. The loss of life accounted for two-thirds of the damage costs, while property and other assets were destroyed for the remaining one-third.

Storms like Hurricane Harvey and Cyclone Nargis accounted for two-thirds of climate expenses, with heatwaves accounting for 16% and floods and droughts accounting for 10%.

Prof. Ilan Noy of the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and co-author of the study said the numbers might be big, but they don't present the whole picture.

"When you compare it to the standard quantification of the cost of climate change [using computer models], it seems those quantifications are underestimating the impact of climate change," he said.

He added there were many extreme weather occurrences for which there was no statistics on the number of people killed or economic damage.

Financial Burden of Climate Change

Understanding the financial impact of the climate problem will be critical in determining the amount of money required to establish a worldwide loss and damage fund.

The establishment of a loss and damage fund was a prominent topic debated at Cop27 last year, with the purpose of providing relief to vulnerable nations in need of recovery from extreme weather catastrophes.

At the said climate summit, participating governments agreed to establish a loss and damage fund, but it has yet to be implemented.

Professor Noy underlines the value of their methodology in quantifying the required finances for this goal and transforming it into a country-insurance mechanism. This model could potentially be useful in calculating damages in climate-related legal issues.

The key message, according to Dr. Stéphane Hallegatte of the World Bank, is clear: climate change is undeniably boosting global economic losses from disasters.

"This has been a topic of controversy, with some claiming that climate change effects are negligible compared with other factors like economic growth and urbanization," she added.

The study is a clear call to action around the globe, emphasizing the critical need for international collaboration and strong climate action. The penalty of inaction is simply too high to ignore as the numbers continue to rise.