UN forecasts that by 2030, there will be 560 severe events per year.

By 2030, the world will encounter 1.5 disasters each day, or 560 per year, as humans enter a “cycle of self-destruction” by warming the environment and ignoring danger, forcing millions more people into poverty, according to the United Nations.

According to a yearly UN assessment on disasters, between 350 and 500 medium-sized to catastrophic disasters have been reported annually over the last two decades, but governments are “fundamentally” underestimating their full impact on lives and livelihoods.

“Raising the alarm by stating the truth is not only important but crucial,” said Mami Mizutori, the head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), which released the Global Assessment Report 2022.

“The science is unmistakable. It is less expensive to intervene before a calamity wreaks havoc than to wait until the damage is done and then respond,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Climate change impacts, such as heat, drought, and flooding, are expected to become more frequent and strong in the coming years, causing harm to environment, people, and the areas where they live, according to the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

However, the panel found that efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to global warming are both lagging.

According to a new UNDRR assessment, increasingly frequent and intense catastrophes have killed or impacted more people in the last five years than in the preceding five years, potentially pushing an additional 100 million people into poverty by 2030.

Natural disasters such as floods, droughts, and storms, as well as earthquakes and diseases, are all included in the report.

In a statement, Deputy UN Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed stated, “The world needs to do more to incorporate catastrophe risk in how we live, construct, and invest, which is sending humanity on a spiral of self-destruction.”

Impacts that are not equal

According to the research, disasters cost an average of $170 billion each year over the last decade, disproportionately affecting developing countries and their poorest citizens.

According to the report, disasters cost these countries an average of 1% of their annual GDP, ten times more than disasters cost high-income countries.

The Asia-Pacific region has been affected the hardest, with a 1.6 percent yearly GDP damage, according to the research, which was released ahead of a global disaster meeting next month on the Indonesian island of Bali.

Millions of people in the Philippines, for example, are still recovering from Typhoon Rai, which slammed in December and killed over 300 people while displacing hundreds of thousands more and causing $500 million in damage.

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Politicians and decision-makers must commit to more ambitious climate policies and hasten the transition to green energy to support the most vulnerable communities, according to Mary Joy Gonzales, a project manager at CARE Philippines.

“Those living in urban poor communities, marginalised rural areas, and remote locales are the most vulnerable to extreme climate events and natural hazards,” says the report.

Countries must cease “handling each disaster as a separate surprise,” according to Maarten van Aalst, director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, and instead invest in establishing mechanisms that can assist people cope with climate dangers.

“Unfortunately, those who are most harmed have the fewest resources to deal with the growing threats,” he stated. “We must diminish inequities in order to truly minimise danger.”

Many poor countries are still dealing with the economic effects of the pandemic, as well as mounting indebtedness and inflation, according to UNDRR’s Mizutori.