Veille 2.1

Overall losses from natural disasters in 2023: US$ 250bn; more than 74,000 fatalities Insured global losses of US$ 95bn close to five-year average (US$ 105bn) and above the ten-year average (US$ 90bn) Earthquake in Turkey and Syria was the year’s most devastating humanitarian disaster Thunderstorms in North America and Europe more destructive than ever before: overall losses of US$ 76bn; insured losses US$ 58bn 2023 was the hottest year ever, with a large number of regional records broken

Many of those who drowned near Greece last month were escaping environmental crises in Pakistan, says author Fatima Bhutto

CRED became a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre in 1980 and has expanded its support of the WHO Global Programme for Emergency Preparedness and Response. Since then, it has increased its international network substantially. It has collaborative status with the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-DHA), and also works in collaboration with the European Union Humanitarian Office (ECHO), the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA-USAID) as well as with non-governmental agencies such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Croissant (ICRCRC, Switzerland). During the 1990's, the Centre actively promoted the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR).

Most expensive storm cost $100bn while deadliest floods killed 1,700 and displaced 7 million, report finds

A report released Wednesday warns that rising lake levels, strong wind gusts and high waves are inching closer to flooding hazardous spots in northern Illinois, including coal, nuclear and Superfund sites.

Environmentalists once saw abstraction as the biggest obstacle to climate action. How, they wondered, could one focus the public on the distant future? Today, we confront the opposite problem, with the very immediacy of the crisis generating a strange paralysis. When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that global heating made extreme flooding more common, its new report at the end of February spurred relatively little discussion – in part because of the water covering swathes of Queensland and New South Wales. As tinnies plucked desperate residents from the deluge, who could give due weight to the warning from Prof Brendan Mackey, one of the IPPC authors, that the science clearly projected “an increase of heavy rainfall events?”

The study from the UN University, the academic and research arm of the UN, looks at 10 different disasters that occurred in 2020 and 2021, and finds that, even though they occurred in very different locations and do not initially appear to have much in common, they are, in fact, interconnected.

Climate risk, a growing focus for environment, social and governance-minded investors, has morphed into an urgent issue for insurers as wildfires ravage the U.S. and Europe and natural disasters destroy property and cost lives worldwide.

A Pandora’s box of environmental disasters has been opened, threatening the ability of the natural world to recover and humanity to survive. From devastating fires and storms to the emergence of deadly new viruses, it’s hard to deny the terrifying reality of climate change.

Emily Stochl is a writer with a focus on the climate crisis, the second-hand fashion industry, ethical labor practices and sustainability. She is a climate activist with the grassroots organization, Sunrise Movement. She is also the host and creator of Pre-Loved Podcast.