Planet Just Had Costliest Decade For Global Natural Disasters: Insurance Industry Report [View all]
Source: Common Dreams
The planet just closed out the costliest decade ever for natural disasters, insurance broker Aon said Wednesday. The economic losses from 2010–2019, according to Aon's Weather, Climate & Catastrophe Insight: 2019 Annual Report (pdf), hit nearly $3 trillion. That's up from 1.8 trillion recorded between 2000 and 2009.
"Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the last decade of natural disasters," said Steve Bowen, director and meteorologist at Aon's Impact Forecasting team, "was the emergence of previously considered 'secondary' perils—such as wildfire, flood, and drought—becoming much more costly and impactful." "Scientific research indicates that climate change will continue to affect all types of weather phenomena and subsequently impact increasingly urbanized areas," he added.
The Asia-Pacific area took the biggest economic hit from disasters. It had 44 percent of the decade's economic losses at about $1 .3 trillion. Convective storms and hurricanes helped put the United States in second place, with the country suffering $906 billion.
The report adds: When comparing losses of the 2000s versus the 2010s, the most considerable uptick occurred in the Americas; notably the Caribbean. The region registered a 192 percent increase in economic costs from natural perils in the 2010s compared to the 2000s. This was largely driven by the historic Atlantic hurricane season of 2017 and Hurricane Dorian in 2019. Focusing on just 2019, over 400 natural disasters struck globally, said Aon, with costs hitting $232 billion...
Read more: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/22/planet-just-had-costliest-decade-global-natural-disasters-insurance-industry-report
The report notes that over 10,000 people also lost their lives to natural disasters. Economic losses from natural disasters top $232 billion in 2019 as the costliest decade on record comes to a close. Explore Aon’s Weather, Climate & Catastrophe Insight report: https://t.co/9ioF1Kjekv
- Floodwater from the Mississippi River rises around a home on June 1, 2019 in West Alton, Missouri.
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