Asia: Alarming climate emergency
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Sep 2023
Disastrous climate events in Asia in 2022 caused a pronounced increase in the number of fatalities, number of people affected and economic damages according to a new report released by World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The report ‘State of climate in Asia, 2022’ released in July 2023 said Asia is the world’s most disaster-prone region and more than 50m people were directly affected due to 81 weather-, climate- and water-related disasters in 2022.
The number of reported disaster events in the region, however, decreased in comparison to 2021, when more than 100 natural disastrous events were reported from Asia. Yet, the effects of such events in 2022 were much more pronounced, with an increase in the number of fatalities, people affected and economic damage.
Around 5,879 Asians died due to natural disasters in 2022, which is 55% more than the human deaths recorded in 2021 in Asia. Over 52m people on the continent were affected due to disasters in 2022, an increase from the 48.3m affected in 2021.
The economic cost of the damage due to these events in 2022 has been more than $36bn and Pakistan accounted for 42% of this, with economic losses of at least $15bn.
The economic losses associated with floods in 2022 exceeded the average over the past 20 years (2002-2021). This was primarily due to the significant economic losses from floods in Pakistan (over $15bn), China (over $5bn) and India (over $4.2bn). A