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12 October 2020 Climate change is the main culprit in doubling the world's natural disasters in twenty years.
This was revealed by a report by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (Unsdir).
Since 2000, 7,348 natural disasters have been recorded (costing nearly $ 3 trillion) that have killed more than 1.2 million people.
"Covid-19 has made governments and public opinion aware of the risks around us. And the climate emergency can be even worse," said UNSDIR Secretary General Mami Mizutori.
"Without a green recovery, we will only increase the climate emergency," insisted the secretary general.
The report, which does not cover epidemiological risks such as coronavirus, shows that the progression of natural disasters is mainly linked to the increase in climate disasters, which went from 3,656 (1980-1999) to 6,681 (2000-2019).
The costs of natural disasters have been estimated at at least nearly $ 3 billion since 2000 but the real amount is higher because a large number of countries, especially in Africa and Asia, do not provide information on the economic impact.
Floods - which have doubled - and storms have been the most frequent catastrophes in the past two decades.
For the next decade, the UN believes the worst problem will be heat waves.
Globally, the number of deaths increased from 1.19 million in the period 180-1999 to 1.23 million in the period 2000-2019, while the number of people affected by these natural disasters went from 3.25 billion to 4 billions.