Appalling losses in both human and economical terms. A WMO report puts the climate crisis into scale.
The economy is not everything, but in a world that clearly puts profit and yield in front of human morality, it can be a powerful argument. According to a report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), climate disasters have caused $4.3 trillion in damages over the last 50 years.
An appalling figure which, if turned into a nation’s GDP, would be the fourth highest in the world. Additionally, the WMO reports, these disasters amounted to 2 million deaths, as much as some of history’s worst genocides.
In 2023, climate disasters struck South East Asia, in particular Bangladesh and Myanmar. Last year, severe droughts in Kenya and powerful floodings in Pakistan left hundreds of thousands dead.
Most of these disasters used to happen before as well, but the climate crisis makes them more frequent and much more violent. According to the report, in the last 50 years these disasters have become increasingly more common.
While this might be related to an improvement in reporting, it does not change the scale of the disaster.
Africa and Asia are the two largest continents on the planet and, because of their position, also the hardest hit by climate calamities. The report numbers Africa’s deaths at 733,585, caused by a total of 1,800 disasters. In Asia, these numbers rise to 984,263 deaths caused by 3,600 disasters.
A warming planet
The climate crisis is getting more severe as the years pass. The WMO predicted a 66% chance of reaching the +1.5° climate limit in the next five years. The limit, set by the Paris agreement in 2015, concerns global temperature compared to pre-industrial levels.
The scale of the disaster is starting to reach developed countries as well. Last year, the flooding of the Rhine in Germany left hundreds homeless, and the current deluge in Italy caused 14 deaths recorded so far.
The climate crisis is on many developed countries’ agendas, though it still divides the debate. Indeed, no clear and fast solution is reachable, and the energetic transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies is ridden with obstacles.
The same Germany that witnessed last year’s terrible flooding has closed down its remaining nuclear power plants, replacing them with coal. China and the United States are still the world’s largest polluters, despite the many promises to finally kickstart the energy transition.
But the WMO report forces us to question what’s worse. Keep spending trillions to repair ever increasing damages, or using that same amount of money for the green transition?
