Biggest Weather Disasters Cost Around USD 150 Billion in 2020

The world's 10 costliest weather disasters of 2020 reached insured damages worth 0bn, claimed at least 3,500 lives and displaced more than 13.5 million people. This is more than 2019 and reflects a long-term impact of global warming, according to a new report.

From Australia's out-of-control wildfires to a record number of Atlantic hurricanes through November, the true cost of the year's climate-enhanced calamities was in fact far higher because most losses were uninsured.

According to the annual tally from the charity Christian Aid, entitled Count the cost of 2020: a year of climate breakdown, the burden fell disproportionately on poorer nations.

Only 4% of economic losses from climate-impacted extreme events in low-income countries were insured, compared with 60% in high-income economies, the report said, citing a study last month in The Lancet.
"Whether floods in Asia, locusts in Africa, or storms in Europe and the Americas, climate change has continued to rage in 2020," said Christian Aid's climate policy lead, Kat Kramer.

Extreme weather disasters, of course, have plagued humanity long before man-made global warming began to mess with the planet's climate system.

But more than a century of temperature and precipitation data, along with decades of satellite data on hurricanes and sea level rise, have left no doubt that Earth's warming surface temperature is amplifying their impact.
Massive tropical storms - variously known as hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones - are now more likely, for example, to be stronger, last longer, carry more water and wander beyond their historical range.
2020's record-breaking number of named Atlantic hurricanes - with at least 400 fatalities and bn in damages - suggest the world could...