WORLD
UN: Climate emergency causes number of natural disasters to double in last 20 years


Twice as many natural disasters have been reported in the past 20 years compared to the preceding 20, with climate change the main cause of this rise, according to a UN report.

The organisation warned if the world doesn’t get to grips with the climate emergency, the situation will continue to worsen.

From 2000-2019, 7,348 natural disasters were recorded worldwide, which was almost twice as many as between 1980 and 1999, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) said.

The events came at a cost of nearly $3 trillion (€2.54 trillion) and killed more than 1.2 million people.

"COVID-19 has really raised the awareness of governments and the general public about the risks around us. They can see that if COVID-19 is so terrible, the climate emergency can be even worse," said UNDRR Secretary-General Mami Mizutori at a press conference.

"Without a green recovery, we will only increase the climate emergency," she insisted.

The report, which does not focus on epidemiological risks such as coronavirus, shows that the increase in natural disasters is mainly linked to the rise in climatic disasters,
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