Extreme weather events: 11,000 in less than twenty years. The toll is devastating
Environment — di Valentina Neri
Between 2000 and 2019, around 11,000 extreme weather events lashed every corner of the globe, leaving behind a devastating toll.
Extreme weather events: 11,000 in less than twenty years. The toll is devastating
Between 2000 and 2019, around 11,000 extreme weather events lashed every corner of the globe, leaving behind a devastating toll.
475,000 deaths and €2,106 billion in economic losses. It sounds like the toll of a war or a nuclear catastrophe, yet it is that of the 11,000 extreme weather events that occurred around the world in less than twenty years, between 2000 and 2019. That is to say: cyclones, landslides, drought waves, wildfires, torrential rains and hailstorms. These staggering figures were published in the Global climate risk index 2021 by the German NGO Germanwatch.
Which countries have been hit hardest by extreme weather events
Puerto Rico, Myanmar and Haiti. These are the three countries most battered by the climate over the past two decades. In the cases of Puerto Rico and Myanmar, the ranking is strongly influenced by single exceptional events: respectively Hurricane Maria in 2017 (which alone caused 98 per cent of the confirmed damage to the country across the 19 years considered) and Cyclone Nargis in 2008 (responsible for 140,000 deaths and the destruction of homes and property belonging to 2.4 million people).
“#Storms🌬️ were one major cause of damage in 2019. They will probably increase with every 10th of degree in average global temperature rise”, Vera Künzel at launch of the Global Climate Risk Index 2021
#GCRI2021
#AdaptationSummit
#ClimateAdaptation
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germanwatch.org/en/19777
#GCRI2021
#AdaptationSummit
#ClimateAdaptation
👇👇👇
germanwatch.org/en/19777
The situation in Haiti is different, however. In the Caribbean republic, extreme weather events now occur with a certain frequency, as they do in the Philippines (struck by three devastating typhoons in just six years: Bopha in 2012, Haiyan in 2013 and Mangkhut in 2018) and in Pakistan.
Cyclones and hurricanes defined a dramatic 2019
In 2019 the country that paid the highest price was Mozambique. Like Zimbabwe (second in the ranking) and Malawi (fifth), it was struck by Cyclone Idai, described by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as "one of the worst weather-related disasters in Africa's history." With its torrential rains and winds of up to 195 kilometres per hour, the cyclone caused around 1,000 deaths and €1.8 billion in damage. Three million people were affected. Less than two months later, Mozambique also had to contend with the extremely powerful Cyclone Kenneth.
Third in the ranking of countries most battered by the climate in 2019 are the Bahamas. Here, the main culprit is Hurricane Dorian, which brought winds of up to 300 kilometres per hour and 914 millimetres of rain within the space of a few hours (80 per cent of the amount that typically falls in an entire year). With 13,000 homes destroyed, damages exceeded €2.8 billion.
Global Climate Risk Index 2021: #Mozambique, #Zimbabwe & #TheBahamas hit hardest by extreme weather in 2019. #ClimateAdaptation Summit starting today must discuss enhanced support for vulnerable countries to deal with increasing climate impacts: germanwatch.org/en/19777
#GCRI2021
#GCRI2021
Hundreds of billions a year are needed to protect ourselves from the climate
Looking ahead, climate change is expected to manifest itself in an ever more intense and violent manner, with all the consequences that entails. According to the Adaptation gap report 2020 published by the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep), €57 billion a year is needed to adapt territories to the impact of the climate. By 2030 this figure will be somewhere between €115 and €246 billion, rising to between €230 and €411 billion by 2050. And this estimate covers developing countries only.