Off the wire
• 1st LD Writethru: U.S. stocks end lower on soft data  • New York State announces new measures for fight against terrorism  • Lin Dan aiming high at Rio 2016 badminton test event  • UN warns of deteriorating humanitarian situation in South Sudan  • Israeli war jets strike on central Gaza in response to rocket attack  • Transport union to support postal workers' strike in Finland  • Spanish police arrest man on charge of attempting to recruit jihadists  • 1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar rises to 8-month high on rate-hike expectation  • Eurogroup requires Spain to revise 2016 draft budgetary plan to meet requirements  • 100,000 Bhutanese refugees have left camps to restart new lives: UN  
You are here: 　 Home

UN report finds 90 pct of disasters are weather-related

Xinhua, November 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

A new UN-backed report has found that in the past 20 years, 90 percent of major disasters have been caused by nearly 6,500 recorded floods, storms, heatwaves, droughts and other weather-related events, a UN spokesman said Monday.

The report, entitled The Human Cost of Weather Related Disasters, found that since 1995, more than 600,000 people have died as a result of weather-related disasters, with an additional 4.1 billion people having been injured, left homeless or in need of emergency assistance, said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

The five countries hit by the highest number of disasters are the United States, China, India, Philippines, and Indonesia, said Dujarric.

The report issued Monday by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) notes data gaps, noting that only 35 percent of records include information about economic losses.

UNISDR estimated that the true figure on disaster losses -- including earthquakes and tsunamis -- is between 250 billion U.S. dollars and 300 billion dollars annually.

According to the report, Asia accounts for the "lion's share of disaster impacts" including 332,000 deaths and 3.7 billion people affected. The death toll in Asia included 138,000 deaths caused by Cyclone Nargis which struck Myanmar in 2008.

The report also highlights that floods accounted for 47 percent of all weather-related disasters from 1995-2015, affecting 2.3 billion people and killing 157,000.

Storms were the deadliest type of weather-related disaster, accounting for 242,000 deaths or 40 percent of the global weather-related deaths, with 89 percent of these deaths occurring in lower-income countries.

Overall, heatwaves accounted for 148,000 of the 164,000 lives lost due to extreme temperatures, with 92 percent of deaths occurring in high-income countries, said the report.

Finally, drought reportedly affects Africa more than any other continent, with 136 events between 1995 and 2015, including 77 droughts in East Africa alone, the report showed. Enditem