Weather, climate and water-related disasters have occurred at an average rate of one per day worldwide over the past 50 years (1970-2019), a five-fold increase, according to theAtlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes, published on 1 September by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
According to the UN agency, the cause of this increase is obvious: climate change.
“The number of extreme weather, climate and water events continues to rise. They will become more frequent and severe in many parts of the world as a result of climate change”, said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.
According to the WMO, more than 11,000 disasters attributed to these phenomena have been reported in the last five decades. They caused just over two million deaths (115 deaths per day on average) - 91% of these deaths occurring in developing countries - and property damage amounting to $3.64 trillion ($202 million per day on average).
The deadliest events are droughts (650,000 deaths), storms (577,232 deaths), floods (58,700 deaths) and extreme temperatures (55,736 deaths).
However, the number of deaths has decreased by a factor of almost three between 1970 and 2019, thanks to improved early warning systems and disaster management. The number of deaths has fallen from over 50,000 per year in the 1970s (170 deaths per day on average) to less than 20,000 (40 deaths per day on average) in the 2010s.
Nearly 1,700 disasters in Europe
For Europe, the WMO has identified a total of 1,672 disasters for the period 1970-2019.
These resulted in 159,438 deaths, of which 127,946 (80%) were due to the 2003 and 2010 heatwaves, and economic losses amounting to $476.5 billion. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)