Extreme weather caused some $129 billion (111 billion euros) in economic losses last year, said a report Tuesday that warned the bill will keep climbing as climate change boosts droughts, storms and floods. These “resulted in $129 billion in overall economic losses” — a figure roughly matching the budget of Finland. Losses were counted as damage to physical assets and did not include the “economic value” of deaths, injury or disease caused by extreme events. An observed increase in weather disasters in recent years, the report said, cannot yet be unequivocally be attribute to climate change. Wheat and mosquitoesIn high-income countries, about half of economic losses were insured, compared to less than one percent in poor nations.

Source: Manila Times October 31, 2017 03:33 UTC