Context: Recently, World Meteorological Organization has released an Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes (1970 – 2019).
About the Atlas

• The is the most comprehensive review of mortality and economic losses from weather, water and climate extremes ever produced.
• It surveys some 11,000 disasters occurring between 1979-2019.

Major Highlights of the report

• The number of disasters has increased nearly fivefold from 1970s to 2019, with frequent occurrences of extreme weather events due to global warming.
• The growing frequency is attributed to both climate change and improved disaster reporting.
• Costs from the events have surged from $175.4 billion in 1970s to $1.38 trillion in 2010s.
• The annual death toll has fallen from more than 50,000 in 1970s to around 18,000 in the 2010s, suggesting better disaster preparedness.
• Improved multi-hazard early warning systems have led to a significant reduction in mortality.
• More than 91% of the 2 million deaths occurred were reported from developing countries.
• Only half of the WMO's 193 members have multi-hazard early warning systems.
• Ethiopia's 1983 drought was the single most fatal event with 300,000 deaths.
• Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that was the costliest, with losses of $163.61 billion.

Impacts in Asia

• In Asia, 3454 disasters were recorded from 1970–2019, with 975622 lives lost and $ 1.2 trillion in reported economic damages.
• Asia accounts for nearly one third (31%) of weather, climate and water-related disasters reported globally.

It accounted for nearly half of deaths (47%) and one third (31%) of associated economic losses.

• Most of these disasters were associated with floods (45%) and storms (36%).
• Storms had the highest impacts on lives lost.
• Floods led to the greatest economic losses.

Key Recommendations
The report reveals key lessons learned during the past 50 years and makes a number of recommendations, including:

• Review hazard exposure and vulnerability considering a changing climate to reflect that tropical cyclones may have different tracks, intensity and speed than in the past.
• Strengthen disaster risk financing mechanisms at national to international levels, especially for Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States and Territories.
• Develop integrated and proactive policies on slow-onset disasters such as drought.

Road Ahead

• More international cooperation is needed to tackle the chronic problem of huge numbers of people being displaced each year by floods, storms and drought. We need greater investment in comprehensive disaster risk management ensuring that climate change adaptation is integrated in national and local disaster risk reduction strategies.
• The overlap of the COVID-19 pandemic with many other natural and manmade hazards, especially extreme weather events during the last 18 months demonstrates the need for greater investment in disaster risk reduction and a multi-hazard approach to disaster risk management and early warning systems to reduce risks and strengthen preparedness for multiple disaster scenarios.

Additional Information

About World Meteorological Organization

• It is an intergovernmental organization with a membership of 192 Member States and Territories. India is a member.
• It originated from the International Meteorological Organization (IMO), which was established after the 1873 Vienna International Meteorological Congress.

Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland

• Established by the ratification of the WMO Convention on 23rd March 1950, WMO became the specialized agency of the United Nations for meteorology (weather and climate), operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences.