Natural disasters weigh on the global economy. According to one published study Tuesday February 28 by the reinsurance group Swiss Re, the main climatic phenomena cost around 200 billion dollars (or 184 billion euros) each year.
To carry out these calculations, the company’s economists used data from 2022 in 36 countries. They also limited themselves to the four most frequent and costly weather risks: hurricanes, thunderstorms, floods and winter storms. Therefore, this estimate does not take into account episodes of heat waves and drought.
The Swiss Re report also details the weight of these climatic phenomena on the economy of each of the countries studied. Thus, the Philippines finds itself well at the top of the ranking, with annual material damage estimated at 3% of national GDP. The country is particularly affected by tropical cyclones and floods.
The United States is the second most affected country in the sample, with damage estimated at 0.38% of GDP… Eight times less than the Philippines. The rest of the ranking is made up of Thailand (0.36%), Austria (0.25%) and China (0.22%). France comes in 12th position (0.14%), tied with Germany and Belgium.
Above all, the Swiss Re study underlines that “climate change leads to more severe climatic events”. The opportunity for the group’s economists to repeat their estimate published in 2021: if global warming “remains on the current trajectory”, the world economy could lose “up to 7 to 10% of its GDP” by 2050 .