Report: Extreme weather cost world $2 trillion in 10 years, U.S. worst hit

Source: Axios

8 hours ago


Climate-related extreme weather events cost the global economy more than $2 trillion over the past decade and the U.S. was the worst-affected nation, per a report published as leaders gather for the COP29 summit in Azerbaijan Monday.

Why it matters: The damage estimates in the Oxera report for the International Chamber of Commerce for 2014-2023 roughly equate to those of the 2008 global financial crisis and ICC secretary-general John Denton said "the economic impact of climate change" needs a "response of similar speed and decisiveness," per CNN.

What they did: The report's researchers examined nearly 4,000 events that occurred over the 10-year period which impacted 1.6 billion people.

What they found: In the last two full years of the report alone, global economic damages reached $451 billion. That's a 19% rise compared to the previous eight years of the decade, according to the researchers.

The U.S. had the greatest economic losses over the period from 2014-2023 ($934.7 billion), followed by China at $267.9 billion and India ($112 billion).