The UN warns that every week there is a natural disaster caused by climate change

According to the United Nations (UN), “every week there is a natural catastrophe due to the climate crisis.” This situation has worried the organization, which states that “although these disasters do not capture international attention, they must be enough for developing countries to prepare for the profound impacts that will come.”

Catastrophes such as Cyclone Idai, where 300 people died last March, or Cyclone Kenneth, which affected 188,700 people, generated thousands of headlines in the international press. However, according to the UN, what many consider to be ‘unimportant events’, which also cause deaths or forced displacement, do not appear in any news. These facts, according to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mami Mizutori, make the world see that “this is not in the future, it is now”.

The cost of climate change

The estimated cost of climate-related disasters totals $520 trillion (more than €460 trillion) each year, while the cost of building infrastructure resilient to the effects of global warming over the next 20 years is a total of $2.7 trillion (€2.40 trillion).

Mizutori said: “The cost of building infrastructure is not high because investors are not doing enough. People must end up paying to be able to adapt to what is to come.” If people were to invest in preparing for the upcoming impacts of the climate crisis, housing networks, roads and railways, factories, and energy and water supply networks would have to be remodeled to make them less vulnerable to the effects of floods, droughts, storms and high temperatures.

Source: The Newspaper