Report: 10 largest global weather events of 2021 caused $170B in damage
Ten of this year’s most destructive weather events cost a combined $170 billion globally in damage, Digital Insurance reported. According to a new study by Christian Aid, a London-based relief agency, Hurricane Ida, a tropical storm that pummeled much of the eastern U.S. with lashing rain in August, killed at least 95 people and cost the economy $65 billion. A month earlier, floods in Europe caused 240 deaths and an economic loss of $43 billion. Floods in China’s Henan province in July killed more than 300 and cost more than $17 billion. This year is expected to be the sixth time global natural disasters have cost more than $100 billion, the report stated, citing insurer Aon PLC. All six of those years have happened since 2011. “The costs of climate change have been grave this year,” said Kat Kramer, Christian Aid’s climate policy lead and author of the report. “It is clear that the world is not on track to ensure a safe and prosperous world.”