The UN has released a new report that shows the world is experiencing an unprecedented rise in disaster numbers in shorter time periods. It also stated that human activity is making things worse.
Published Tuesday The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reductions (UNDRR)The report showed that climate change impacts and poor risk management combined to increase the number of recorded disasters every year to 350 to 500 per decade, five times more than the numbers fifty years ago.
Those events ranging from fires and floods to pandemics and chemical accidents could increase to 560 per year by 2030 or about 1.5 per day, the report said, potentially putting millions of lives at risk.
The UN stated that climate change, which causes more extreme weather, is a major factor in the increase.
According to the report, governments have not done enough to improve disaster risk management, leaving humanity unprepared for the future.
“The world must do more to include disaster risk in how they live, build, and invest,” stated Amina J. Mohamed, UN Deputy Secretary General, adding that the current pathways are “setting mankind on a spiral toward self-destruction.”
Who will be most affected by this?
The UN report estimated that disasters cost the world $170 billion (159 Billion) annually over the past decade.
Low and middle income countries are bearing the greater financial burden of those costs however, and will likely continue to do so in the coming decades, the UN report noted.
UN states that governments are not doing enough in improving disaster risk management.
The average loss of developing countries to disasters is about 1%, while richer countries experience losses of 0.1% to 0.2%.
The Asia-Pacific region has suffered the most damage, with 1.3% of GDP lost to annual natural disasters. African countries, the second most-affected, lose 0.6% of GDP.
The report is bad news for developing countries, which are already set to bear the worst impacts of a warming world, due to high risk of natural catastrophes and a disproportionate capacity to mitigate or adapt to climate impacts.
The UN report further noted that poorer countries have lower insurance coverage, making them more vulnerable. These regions are responsible for only 40% of the disaster-related loss since 1989.
Jenty KirschWood, the report’s coordinating author, stated that “the financial system really needs be ahead of this curve.” “Otherwise, there’s a lot built-up risk that’s not being priced into how decisions are made.”
sl/rs (Reuters, AFP)
