Paris (AFP)

At least 15 natural disasters linked to climate change have caused destruction costing more than a billion dollars in 2019 and seven of them at least 10 billion, according to a compilation carried out by a British NGO.

"Extreme weather events, fueled by climate change, hit all populated continents in 2019, resulting in the death and displacement of millions of people and causing billions of dollars in damage," said British NGO Christian Aid in a statement. study published Friday.

Based on the compilation of data available in open source (reports from the UN or state structures, scientific studies, press), the NGO lists 15 events - typhoons, floods, forest fires - which caused more one billion dollars (900 million euros) in damage.

Seven of these disasters have even caused damage estimated at more than 10 billion dollars (9 billion euros): the floods in northern India and typhoon Lekima in China (10 billion each); Hurricane Dorian in North America (11.4 billion); the floods from June to August in China (12 billion); floods in the Midwest and southern United States (12.5 billion); Typhoon Hagibis in October in Japan (15 billion) and forest fires in California from October to November (25 billion).

"Each of these disasters has a link with climate change," note the authors. For example, in Argentina and Uruguay, where floods caused 2.5 billion damage in January, the affected areas experienced rainfall five times greater than the average, one year after experiencing severe drought. Variations which are accentuated with climate change, and soils that are made drier which aggravate the consequences in the event of heavy rain.

Another example, Cyclone Idai, which devastated Mozambique's second city in March, was, according to scientists, reinforced by the warming temperature of the Indian Ocean, while rising sea levels worsened the floods that l 'followed. Same phenomena at work for cyclone Fani in India and Bangladesh in May, with damage estimated at more than eight billion dollars.

Christian Aid stresses however that "in no way do the financial figures give a global vision" of the extent of these disasters, especially in consequences for the populations.

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, 1,300 dead) , recalling that the poorest populations pay the highest price for the consequences of climate change.

"In contrast, financial costs are higher in wealthy countries and Japan and the United States have experienced the three most costly events," the report said.

In mid-December, the Swiss reinsurer Swiss Re had in a first annual estimate evaluated at 140 billion dollars the economic losses linked to natural disasters and human disasters in 2019, against 176 billion in 2018.

© 2019 AFP