Hurricanes, cyclones, droughts, torrential rains, strong heat waves… No region in the world has been spared from suffering some type of climate catastrophe in 2024. And, even so, the damage that hit Spain on October 29 has become one of the ten costliest disasters of the world this year. According to calculations by the British non-profit organization Christian Aid, the floods caused by Dana have meant more than 4,000 million euros in financial costs, and without taking into account uninsured assets.
This appears in the ‘Counting the Cost 2024’ report prepared each year by the NGO, and which places the disaster on Spanish soil as the tenth of the most economically devastating of the year. A list that also includes catastrophes in the United States, China, Brazil and Central Europe and which in total add up to almost 220,000 million euros in costs.
«The data shows that climate change is doubling the probability of many extreme weather events, such as floods and tropical cyclones, and increasing in intensity, resulting in massive destruction and loss of life. “These climate disasters are a warning sign of what is to come,” says Patrick Watt, chief executive of Christian Aid.
Specifically, it estimates that the damage has entailed a cost of 4,045 million euros (4,220 million dollars), in addition to causing 227 deaths. Here the report refers to several studies that have already linked the virulence of the rains with an increase in the surface temperature of the Mediterranean and global warming. Specifically, it cites a study by World Weather Attribution, a group of scientists that has specialized in quickly studying whether or not a meteorological event is linked to climate change, which has concluded that global warming doubled the probability for the damage to happen and contributed to the rains being a 12% more intense. A figure similar to that obtained by another study, this time from Climameter, a research project funded by the European Union and the French National Scientific Research Center (CNRS), which concluded that climate change increased precipitation by 15%.
The most expensive catastrophes
Number one on this list of disasters is taken by the storms that have been recorded in the United States from June to September and that the report groups into a single category. «These storms are characterized by being associated with thunder, lightning, intense rain, hail, strong winds and sudden changes in temperature. In the United States, between January and September, 46 of them caused 88 deaths and an accumulated cost of more than $60 billion. [57.519 millones de euros]» says the report. The storms affected most of the country, and included “tornado outbreaks.”
These storms are followed by Hurricane Miltonwhich landed in Florida in October and is already considered one of the most expensive in the history of the United States: its costs are another 57.5 billion euros; while the Hurricane Helenewhose impacts in the United States, Mexico and Cuba, total 52,725 million euros.
The China floods between June and July also deserve a special mention. The estimated cost is about 15,000 million euros, in addition to 315 deaths. The ‘top five’ completes it Typhoon Yagiwhich hit Southeast Asia last September and left more than 800 dead in addition to 12 billion. In its wake, this super typhoon caused 39 landslides, severe flooding, and widespread damage to infrastructure, particularly in the Philippines, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Thailand. It is equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane and reached maximum wind speeds of over 200 km/h.
He Hurricane Beryl (with an associated financial cost of about 6,400 million), the storm Boris (which affected Central Europe and had a cost of almost 5000 million), the floods of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil (almost 4.8 billion) the floods of Bavaria, Germany (about 4,261 million) and the Valencia floods complete the ten most costly disasters of the year. However, the report points out, “the real financial costs are likely to be even greater (e.g., losses in crop production, delays in trade), while the human costs are often unaccounted for.”
Additionally, some of the most devastating extreme weather events in 2024 affected the poorest countrieswhere the assets are not insured, so a priori, the financial costs seem lower, but the devastation is equal or greater. Among them, the report cites landslides in the Philippines, drought in southern Africa and floods in Afghanistan and Pakistan, among others.
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