Last month, two major storms, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, caused a total of between $51.5 billion and $81.5 billion of property damage, mostly to Southeastern US states, according to estimates from CoreLogic.
That’s a lot of damage – but it’s only a small fraction of what climate change has cost people around the world.
A new report is flashing a warning signal about climate change and natural disasters, finding that their total economic damage has skyrocketed into the trillions.
The report from the International Chamber of Commerce, which comes as the United Nations Climate Change Conference begins in Azerbaijan this week, estimated that the total cost of damage from climate-related extreme weather events globally was approximately $2 trillion between 2014 and 2023 – roughly in line with the economic toll of the 2008 global financial crisis.
The ICC, the largest business organization in the world, promotes international trade and investment. In the report released on Sunday, the group said it aims to push governments and businesses to accelerate policies that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which directly contribute to global climate change.
“Just as the global financial crisis was met with a swift and concerted response from world leaders, we need governments to understand that the economic impact of climate change necessitates a response of similar speed and decisiveness,” said John W.H. Denton AO, the secretary general of the ICC, in a statement to CNN.
The ICC’s report was released less than a week after Donald Trump was reelected as US president. Trump has promised to undo climate regulations in the country, including rolling back pollution limits on tailpipes and power plants. During his last term, Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Agreement, arguing that it placed an unfair economic burden on Americans.
The ICC report assessed nearly 4,000 weather events across six continents in the last decade, combining both the direct monetary toll from the destruction of homes, businesses and infrastructure and the impact of extreme weather on human productivity.
It found that approximately 1.6 billion people were affected by these weather events, and the report argues that the toll will only intensify over time: There has been an 83% increase in recorded climate disasters between 1980-1999 and 2000-2019, according to the ICC.
In 2022 and 2023, economic damages reached $451 billion, a 19% increase compared to the annual average from the previous eight years, the report found.
“The data from the past decade shows definitively that climate change is not a future problem: the productivity losses from extreme weather events are being felt in the here and now by the real economy,” Denton said.
Separate data released last week by Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service confirms that the world will likely surpass a grim milestone this year: 2024 is likely to be the hottest year on record.
