By year 2030 humans could suffer 560 catastrophic disasters every year

New Delhi, Apr 26: The United Nations (UN) has put out a grim report stating that the earth could be hit harder in the years to come due to catastrophes.

If the current trend continues unchecked then the world would suffer 500 catastrophes by the year 2030, higher than 400 disasters per year in 2015. The report said that many of the disasters would be weather related such as fires and floods and also other hazards such as pandemics and chemical accidents.

"Climate change is increasing the magnitude, frequency, duration, and severity of climate-related hazards. It has become a major driver of disaster losses and development achievement setbacks," the UN report said. It also added that from 1970 to 2000 the world suffered only 90 to 100 medium to large scale disasters a year.

Further it said that the number of extreme heatwaves in 2030 will be three times what it was in 2001.

There will be 30 per cent more droughts, it said that while also looking at COVID-19, economic meltdowns and food shortages, all of which will be triggered by climate change.

Mami Mizutori, chief of the UN Office of Disaster Risk Reduction said that if we do not get ahead of the curve, it will reach a point where we cannot manage the consequences of a disaster.

In 1990 disasters cost the world around $70 billion a year. Now they cost more than $170 billion in a year. This is after adjusting inflation, the report said. Mizutori said nor does that include indirect costs we seldom think about that add up.

"The world needs to do more to incorporate disaster risk in how we live, build and invest, which is setting humanity on a spiral of self-destruction. We must turn our collective complacency to action," Amina J Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General, who presented the report at UN headquarters in New York told Reuters.