There was one weather disaster per day from 2005 to 2014, or 335 each year, twice the rate compared to the 1985 to 1995 decade, and 14% more than 1994 to 2004, says a new United Nations report. According to a new United Nations report, The Human Cost of Weather Related Disasters (The Human Cost of Weather Related Disasters) ninety percent of major catastrophes have occurred over the last two decades due to 6 ,457 storms, heatwaves or other weather-related incidents. The five nations worst affected by the number of disasters are the US with 472, China with 441, India with 288, Philippines with 274 and Indonesia with 163. Each decade, the number of weather-related catastrophes increases. (Source: The Human Cost of Weather Related Disasters) 4.1 billion people injured, left homeless or in need of help The report, compiled by the Belgian-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), informs that since 1995, when the first Climate Change Conference (COP1) was held, a total of 606,000 lives have been lost, and 4.1 billion humans have been either injured, left homeless or in need of emergency assistance because of a weather-related disaster. The authors of the report point out that there are many data gaps and note that economic losses due to weather-related catastrophes can be much higher than $1. 891 trillion, which accounts for 71% of all losses caused by natural hazards over the two-decade period. Only thirty-five per cent of all records contain data on economic losses. UNISDR estimates that the real figure on disaster losses – including tsunamis and earthquakes – is between $250 billion and $300 billion annually, which is like losing the whole of Ireland’s GDP ($229 billion) each year. The frequency of weather-related catastrophes increased in late s. It reached a maximum in 2005.. Despite a fall in frequency since then, a sustained rise in the number of floods and storms pushed the average annual total up to 335 disasters per annually after 2005, 14% higher than in the previous decade and more than twice the level recorded in 1980-1989. Source: The Human Cost of Weather-Related Disasters. High cost in terms of lives lost. Ms. Margareta Wahlstrom from UNISDR stated that weather and climate were major factors in disaster risks. Economic losses are a major development challenge for many least developed countries battling climate change and poverty.” “In the long term, an agreement in Paris at COP21 on reducing greenhouse gas emissions will be a significant contribution to reducing damage and loss from disasters which are partly driven by a warming globe and rising sea levels.” “For now, there is a need to reduce existing levels of risk and avoid creating new risk by ensuring that public and private investments are risk-informed and do not increase the exposure of people and economic assets to natural hazards on flood plains, vulnerable low-lying coastlines or other locations unsuited for human settlement.” (Source: The Human Cost of Weather Related Disasters) According to Ms. Wahlstrom, the development year had started in March 2015 with the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, a 15-year-long package endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly, which sets out targets for a significant reduction in disaster losses, including the number of individuals affected, mortality, economic losses and damage to vital infrastructure including hospitals and schools. CRED’s Head, Professor Debarati Gha-Sapir stated that climate change, weather variability, and other risks pose a serious threat to the Sustainable Development Goals. “We must reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and address other risk factors such as urban planning, environmental degradation, and gaps in early warnings. This all requires ensuring people are risk informed and strengthening institutions which manage disaster risk.” Some key details from the report Asia: accounts for the bulk of the disaster impacts, including 3.7 billion individuals affected and 332,000 deaths. The Asian death toll includes 138,000 people who died from the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar in 2008. According to CRED’s Emergency Events Data Base (EM-DAT), 87 million homes were either destroyed or damaged over the period of the survey. Floods: during the 1995 to 2015 decade, floods accounted for 47% of all weather-related disasters, which affected 2.3 billion people and took 157,000 lives. Storms: – the most deadly type of weather-related disaster, accounted for 242,000 deaths, or 40% of all weather-related deaths globally. These deaths were 89 percent in countries with lower incomes. Extreme Temperatures: of the 164,000 lives lost because of extreme temperatures, 148,000 were from heatwaves. Ninety-two percent of deaths from heatwaves occurred in the advanced economies – 90% of them in Europe. Droughts: EM-DAT, which recorded 136 droughts between 1995 and 2015 in Africa, said the continent is the worst affected by droughts. 77% of all droughts were in East Africa. They stressed the need to improve data collection regarding indirect drought deaths.
