Climate disasters have increased fivefold between 1970 and 2019, said the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Wednesday, September 1.

The WMO Atlas lists the number of deaths and economic losses due to extreme weather, climate and hydrological events over the past fifty years.

"The number of extreme meteorological, climatic and hydrological phenomena continues to increase. As a result of climate change, they will become more frequent and more violent in many parts of the world," said the secretary general of the UN agency, Petteri Taalas.

In total, more than 11,000 disasters attributed to these phenomena have been reported over the past five decades worldwide, resulting in just over two million deaths and property damage amounting to $ 3,640 billion (more of 3,080 billion euros).

Hurricane Ida, which just hit Louisiana and the Mississippi, is a textbook case.

According to Petteri Taalas, it could turn out to be the costliest weather disaster in history, dethroning Katrina which drowned New Orleans in 2005 and cost $ 163.6 billion, but only made a handful of dead according to a still provisional assessment.

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"What made the difference this time" is prevention, underlined Mami Mizutori, who heads the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), recalling that after Katrina, La Nouvelle- Orléans has invested $ 14.5 billion in anti-flooding devices and dikes.  

Over 91% of deaths in developing countries

On average, one meteorological, climatic or hydrological disaster has been recorded every day for the past 50 years, resulting in the deaths of 115 people and damage totaling $ 202 million every day.

More than 91% of these deaths occurred in developing countries.

Droughts have been responsible for the greatest loss of life in the past 50 years, killing some 650,000, followed by storms (over 577,000 dead) and flooding (58,700 dead) and extreme temperatures ( nearly 56,000 dead).

However, improved early warning systems and disaster management have resulted in a significant reduction in mortality.

The death toll has been reduced from over 50,000 per year in the 1970s to less than 20,000 in the 2010s.

"We are simply better equipped than ever to save lives," said Petteri Taalas.

But much remains to be done.

Only half of WMO's 193 members have multi-hazard early warning systems.

WMO also calls for improved meteorological and hydrological observation networks in Africa, parts of Latin America, and Pacific and Caribbean island states.

Leap in economic losses from disasters, especially storms

Mami Mizutori also welcomed in the statement that more and more lives are being saved thanks to early warning systems.

But, she warned, "the number of people exposed to disaster risk continues to increase due to population growth in risk areas and due to the greater intensity of weather phenomena, and to their increasing frequency ".

As for economic losses, they jumped from an average of $ 49 million per day in the 1970s to $ 383 million per day from 2010 to 2019. Storms were the most common cause of property damage and they are responsible for the biggest economic losses on the planet, according to the WMO.

Seven of the ten costliest disasters of the past 50 years have occurred since 2005, including three in 2017 alone: ​​Hurricanes Harvey (which caused nearly $ 97 billion in damage), Maria (nearly $ 70 billion dollars) and Irma (nearly $ 60 billion).

With AFP

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