Posted on July 29, 2016 by GJEP staff
NOTE: Bear in mind this is the view from Western financial capital, i.e. not particularly concerned with the valuation of climate-related damage done in the Global South. So with Europe lumped with Africa, and the Southern African drought doing extreme damage, nevertheless “the region did not endure an individual disaster event that caused economic losses beyond the USD5.0 billion threshold” because country-by-country, only South Africa emerges as a meso-loser.
Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe model development centre of excellence at Aon Benfield, has released the Annual Global Climate and Catastrophe Report, which evaluates the impact of natural disaster events that occurred worldwide during 2015.
The report reveals that economic losses in 2015 were driven by flood, severe weather (thunderstorm), tropical cyclone and wildfire perils, which accounted for 70 percent of global natural disaster losses. 2015 was also documented as the warmest year since 1880 when global land and ocean temperature records began.
A Closer look at EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa)
Economic and insured losses derived from natural catastrophes in EMEA were well below the 2000-2014 norm and the lowest since 2011. For the second consecutive year, the region did not endure an individual disaster event that caused economic losses beyond the USD5.0 billion threshold. Economic losses (USD16 billion) in 2015 were 35 percent below the 2000-2014 average and 28 percent below the median during the same timeframe. Insured losses (USD5.0billion) were comparatively lower by a substantial 34 percent as compared to the 15-year average and a slightly less 13 percent on a median basis.
From a pure economic cost standpoint, the most significant events surrounded the drought peril as El Niño impacts led to a reduction in precipitation across broad sections of Europe and Africa. Three billion-dollar drought events were recorded in the region in 2015, including two alone in Africa (South Africa and Ethiopia) and one in Romania. The most considerable impacts to the droughts were to the agricultural sector, including concerns over food shortages in parts of Africa.
…(read more).
See also:
Food-Matters
Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice
Transition Studies 