NEW DELHI: India ranks third, after China and the US, for recording the highest number of natural disasters in the past 20 years (2000-2019).
In a report published by the UN office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) on Tuesday, also celebrated as International DRR Day, global economic losses have been estimated at $ 3 trillion in the past two decades. The study has avoided providing country-specific data.
Extreme weather events – floods, storms, landslides, heat waves, droughts, and forest fires – accounted for almost 91% of 7,348 natural disasters in the past 20 years, compared to 4,212 recorded between 1980 and 1999.
“We are deliberately destructive. That is the only conclusion that can be reached when reviewing the disasters that have occurred in the last 20 years. Covid-19 is but the latest proof that political and business leaders have yet to tune in to the world around them, ”said Mami Mizutori, Director of UNDRR.
The study found that disasters have claimed an estimated 1.23 million lives, an average of 60,000 per year, and affected more than 4 billion people with $ 2.97 trillion in economic losses over the past two decades. By comparison, 1.19 million lives were lost and $ 1.63 trillion in economic losses between 1980 and 1999. “China (577 events) and the US (467) reported the highest number of disasters, followed by India (321), Philippines (304) and Indonesia (278) ”, it said.
In its report: ‘The human cost of disasters, an overview of the last 20 years’, the UNDRR warns how global warming It is causing more climate-related disasters, the frequency of which has increased by more than 83% in the last two decades compared to the previous two.
The past 20 years have seen 6,681 weather-related disasters compared to 3,656 during 1980-1999. Although mortality has decreased in climate-related events in the 21st century due to technological advances and better early warning systems, the report warns of a higher cost paid by citizens due to increased economic damages and the alteration of livelihoods.
Floods accounted for 44% of all recorded disasters worldwide in the past two decades, with India again ranking second after China with the most flooding, an average of 17 floods per year and more than 345 million. of its affected population in 20 years. In China, an average of 20 floods affected it each year, affecting some 900 million of its citizens.
“This is clear evidence that in a world where the global average temperature in 2019 was 1.1˚C above the pre-industrial period, the impacts are being felt in the higher frequency of extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, floods, winter storms, hurricanes wildfires, ”the report says.
The study has traced the ‘most shocking years’ as 2002 when 658 million people were affected and 2015 when 430 million were affected. “Both years were determined in part by widespread droughts in India that affected more than 300 million people each year,” he observed.
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