The 2021 record may not have been broken, but it was close. According to the annual report just published by Christian Aid, the ten most severe extreme weather events of the year will have cost just over 168,000 million dollars (157,500 million euros, at current prices).
Last year the mark of 170,000 million dollars was crossed for the first time after a year 2020 where the damages caused by the most serious climatic disasters had been slightly less significant (145,400 million dollars).
$120 billion just for Hurricane Ian
For the record, the costliest weather disaster of 2022 will have been Hurricane Ian, which hit the southeastern United States and Cuba this fall, alone causing more than 100 deaths and at least $100 billion in damage. .
On the European side, it was the long episode of drought this summer that caused the most damage, for a total amount estimated at least 20,000 million dollars by the British NGO. The summer floods in China generated in June by torrential rains, the most important in 60 years, rank third. Christian Aid experts estimate the cost at $12.3 billion.
But the NGO insists that its balance sheet is based solely on the cost of claims covered by insurance. However, many disasters have occurred in countries of the South -especially this summer in Pakistan- where households do not have the means to insure themselves and where the State is not capable of compensating them.
Source: BFM TV
