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A British study, based on the compilation of data from UN reports, state structures and scientific studies, counted for 2019, 15 typhoons, floods or forest fires.
The damage caused by each of the extreme weather events is estimated at more than a billion dollars. Published this Friday, December 27, the study by the British association Christian Aid highlights the relationship between global warming and natural disasters. The wildfires in California in the fall are the most costly disaster ($ 25 billion or 22 billion euros), followed by Typhoon Hagibis which hit Japan in October and which caused $ 15 billion (13.4 billion euros) in damage.
The floods in the Midwest and the southern United States cost $ 12.5 billion (11.2 billion euros). They are succeeded by Hurricane Dorian in North America with 11.4 billion dollars (10.2 billion euros), the floods in China in late spring which caused 12 billion dollars (10.7 billion euros) of damage or the floods in the north of India and typhoon Lekima in China: 10 billion (8.9 billion euros) each. The British study does not take into account the huge fires going on in Australia.
All due to climate change
For the NGO, each of these disasters is related to climate change. The study's authors point to the floods in Argentina and Uruguay which caused 2.5 billion damage in January. In these affected areas, five times more rain fell than the norm, a year after having suffered a severe drought. Global warming is drying up soils that no longer play their role in the event of heavy rain.
Another example, Cyclone Idai: last March, it destroyed the second city of Mozambique. No doubt for the scientists, the cyclone intensified due to the warming of the temperature of the Indian Ocean and the rise of the water level worsened the floods which followed it. The same phenomena were observed in India and in Bangladesh with cyclone Fani which formed in May in the northern Indian Ocean and which was the first to reach category 4, that of extremely severe cyclone. It has caused damage estimated at more than eight billion dollars.
High human cost
The authors of the study recall that the human cost is higher than the financial cost in poor or developing countries: " In many developing countries, the human cost of climate change for vulnerable communities is even higher than the financial cost, "said the British NGO. Taking into account the human lives lost, the NGO stresses that " the immense majority of deaths were caused by only two events ": the floods in the north of India (1,900 dead), and Idai in Mozambique, including the death toll was 1,300, and it is the poorest people who are paying the highest price for the consequences of climate change. While “ in contrast, financial costs are higher in wealthy countries. Japan and the United States experienced the three most costly events . ”
According to the Swiss reinsurer Swiss Re, the amount of economic losses related to climatic and human disasters for 2019 is increasing compared to the previous year. They amount to 140 billion this year against 176 billion in 2018.