23 November 2015: The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) has released a report, titled ‘The Human Cost of Weather-Related Disasters 1995-2015,’ which finds that 90% of disasters around the world are caused by weather extremes, such as floods, storms heatwaves or droughts. Over the past 20 years, these disasters have caused 606,000 deaths and left 4.1 billion people injured, homeless or in need of emergency assistance.

Produced by UNISDR in collaboration with the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) in Belgium, the report compiles data about major disasters that have happened around the world in the 20 years since the first Conference of the Parties (COP 1) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in 1995.

The report finds that 90% of the 6.457 events analyzed have been caused by weather extremes. It shows that 71% of economic losses attributed natural hazards are weather-related, noting that real economic losses may be much higher as only 35% of the records analyzed contained information on economic impacts.

The five chapters of the report discuss: weather-related disasters during the 1995-2015 period; human costs of weather-related disasters; impacts of weather -related disasters by country; impacts on national income; and challenges in assessing the economic costs of disasters.

The report concludes that: weather-related disasters impact rich and poor people alike; economic losses from climate-related disasters are influenced by increasing exposure of people and economic assets; improved early warning systems and flood control for poorer communities at risk are needed to save lives in the future; reducing the size of drought-vulnerable populations should be a global priority; disaster risk governance should be strengthened; and public-private investment in disaster risk prevention should be stepped up. [Publication: The Human Cost of Weather-related Disasters 1995-2015] [UNISDR Press Release] [UN Press Release]