Study: 2023's climate disasters expose 'global postcode lottery stacked against the poor' - BusinessGreen

Study: 2023's climate disasters expose 'global postcode lottery stacked against the poor' | BusinessGreen News

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Christian Aid tots up 2023's most expensive climate disasters as it slams 'double injustice' of catastrophes costing on $400 per person on average

People impacted by the world's 20 biggest climate-driven natural disasters over the past year have suffered resulting costs of more than $400 each on average, with those in developing nations hit far harder than those in richer countries, fresh research published today has claimed.

The Christian Aid study, which has identified the 20 most costly climate disasters per capita worldwide in 2023, warns of a "global postcode lottery stacked against the poor" from the impacts of increasingly extreme events, as it called for an urgent increase in climate finance provided by developed nations to support the developing world.

During a year in which floods, cyclones and drought killed and displaced millions of people worldwide, Christian Aid said the most expensive climate-driven event was the wildfire in Hawaii, which it calculated cost more than $4,000 per person.

That came far ahead of the second costliest climate-driven disaster in 2023 - the fierce storms that hit Micronesian island Guam - which the charity calculated cost almost $1,500 per head, as well as the $9 per person cost of devastating flooding that took place in Peru earlier this year.

Overall, the charity said that across the 20 biggest climate change driven disasters that took place in 2023, it divided the total damages caused by each by the total population of the affected area, totting up the total average cost per person affected across all of these events at more than $400 per person.

These major disasters hit every corner of the globe in 2023, with all six populated continents represented in the list and the likes of the USA, China and Mexico all experiencing disasters costing billions of dollars at a national level, the research found.

It also concluded that some nations are more prone to such climate-driven disasters due to their size, geography, or factors including less resilient homes, employment in industries vulnerable to extreme weather, and places which lack investment in prevention or rebuilding.

As such, the study argued more climate finance was "desperately needed" to support developing and climate vulnerable nations with their shifts towards greener economies, including through investment in early warnings and action on global warming impacts.

Christian Aid chief executive Patrick Watt said that, with 2023 expected to be the hottest year on record worldwide, the effects of climate change around the world were more obvious than ever before.

"The human cost of the climate crisis is seen increasingly in homes washed away and lives ended by floods and storms, and crops and livestock lost to drought," he said.

The report comes after severe thunderstorms, earthquakes, extensive flooding, and heatwaves in the first half of 2023 cost the global insurance industry $50bn in the worst start to a year for the industry since 2011, according to a Swiss Re study.

Separate previous research by the insurer also calculated that a surge in climate-driven natural disasters resulted in global economic losses of $275bn in 2022, with insured losses from natural catastrophes exceeding the $100bn mark for the second year in a row.

Watt said 2023 was "once again devastating if you happened to live in a climate vulnerable country", as he slammed the global injustice of climate change creating "a global postcode lottery stacked against the poor

"While some disasters make the headlines, like the wildfires in Hawaii, in many cases devastating climate-related disasters pass unnoticed by the wider world," he said.

"In poorer countries, people are often less prepared for climate-related disasters and have fewer resources with which to bounce back. There is a double injustice in the fact that the communities worst affected by global warming have contributed little to the problem."

The report comes only a fortnight after governments around the world at COP28 in Dubai approved the launch of a landmark new Loss and Damage Fund aimed at providing a pot of "at least" $100bn a year by 2030 to the countries worst impacted by climate change.

COP28 host country the United Arab Emirates (UAE) recently announced, alongside Germany, they would provide $100m each to the Loss and Damage Fund, while the UK confirmed £60m, including £40m direct into the fund and £20m to support the funding pot. The US pledged an initial $17.5m while Japan confirmed it would pay in $10m.

That came just days after the UK launched a new "resilience and adaptation fund" at the sidelines of COP28, allocating 15 per cent of its £1bn humanitarian aid budget to help countries prepare for humanitarian and climate disasters as part of a revamp of the government's overseas development strategy.

However, despite these announcements, developing economies represented at COP were said to be furious at sluggish progress on broader and much needed climate finance reforms at the summit's conclusion.

Mohamed Adow, director of Nairobi-based climate and energy think tank Power Shift Africa, said it was clear that the costs of the climate crisis were already weighing heavily on some of the poorest people in the world, as he called for urgent action from the richest nations to ramp up their efforts.

"It underlines why it is so vital that the world phase out fossil fuels as quickly as possible," Adow wrote. "It also shows the gaping hole at the recent COP28 climate summit in Dubai: the lack of finance for developing countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

"At the moment poorer countries are being left to foot the bill for these costs themselves, despite them being caused by excessive fossil fuel burning in richer nations," he added. "Until we address this huge adaptation gap, humanity's response to the climate crisis will be failing. It's vital we right this wrong at next year's COP meeting and ensure proper adaptation finance is provided to meet the needs of the vulnerable."

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