According to a UN report, India suffered a whopping $79.5 billion economic loss due to climate-related disasters in the last 20 years. The report highlights the impact of extreme weather events on the global economy. The economies of US, China, Japan, India and Puerto Rico have been the worst affected, added the report.
The report titled 'Economic Losses, Poverty and Disasters 1998-2017' was compiled by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. It states that the years between 1998 to 2017 have seen a dramatic rise of 151 per cent in direct economic losses from climate-related disasters.
In terms of the impact of disasters on the global economy between 1998 and 2017, affected countries reported direct losses of $2.908 trillion, more than twice of what was lost in the previous two decades.
Illustrating the growing threat from climate change, extreme weather events now account for 77 per cent of total economic losses of $2.245 trillion, said the report released on Wednesday.
This represents a "dramatic rise" of 151 per cent compared with losses reported between 1978 and 1997, which amounted to $895 billion.
The greatest economic losses have been experienced by the US at $944.8 billion, followed by China at $492.2 billion, Japan at $376.3 billion, India at USD 79.5 billion and Puerto Rico at USD 71.7 billion.
The report was released ahead of the International Day for Disaster Reduction on October 13.
While high-income countries recorded losses for 53 per cent of reported disasters between 1998 and 2017, low-income countries only recorded them for 13 per cent of disasters.
The report concludes that climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events.
(Featured Image: Times of India)
