The negative effects of climate change on nature are well known, but when it is put in terms of monetary terms, the scale of the problem is often fully understood.
The report highlighted the effects of climate change days before the UN COP26 climate change summit begins on October 31, and said last year was the hotter on record in Asia, with an average of 1.39 degrees Celsius (1.24 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1981-2010 average.
It has implications for other natural phenomena, such as cyclones.
‘Extreme weather and climate change impacts across Asia in 2020 caused the loss of life of thousands of people, displaced millions of others and cost hundreds of billions of dollars, while wreaking a heavy toll on infrastructure and ecosystems,’ the WMO writes in its State of the Climate report.
“Weather and climate hazards, especially floods, storms and droughts, had a significant impact in many countries of the region, affecting agriculture and food security, contributing to increased displacement and vulnerability of migrants, refugees and displaced people, worsening health risks, and exacerbating environmental issues and losses of natural ecosystems,” said WMO Secretary Gen. Petteri Taalas with respect to the report.
The figures were included in the Annual United Nations reports on the climate situation in Asia.
That is lower than the annual average in the previous two decades of 158 million people affected by early warning and 15.500 deaths “and is testimony to the success of early warning systems in many countries in Asia” affecting roughly seven individuals in ten.
A quarter of the Asian mangrove population lies in Bangladesh.
