Climate change and global warming are words flung about in our everyday conversations, often carelessly. So much so that the genuine danger they encapsulate for humanity is frequently disregarded and forgotten. A new study’s findings could be another wake-up call for us to sit down and consider something that could jeopardize our very existence on the only planet we call home.
The Guardian reported that the study is the first to assess the global cost directly related to human-caused global warming. We paid an average of USD 140 billion per year between 2000 and 2019 as a result of global warming, according to the analysis. According to the most recent figures, the cost in 2022 will be USD 280 billion. Due to a lack of data from many nations, particularly low-income ones, the figure might be significantly higher. Aspects such as climatic costs incurred owing to crop output declines and sea level rise were also excluded.
Climate change has impacted 1.2 billion people in the past two decades, costing $1.3 trillion
The survey also discovered that climate change has touched 1.2 billion individuals during the last two decades. The loss of life accounted for two-thirds of the damage expenditures. The third was due to destruction and the destruction of other assets. According to the researchers, this methodology can be used to calculate funds for the United Nation’s climate summit in 2022, which established a loss and damage fund. The fund is meant to help poorer countries recover from extreme weather catastrophes.
“The headline number is $140bn a year and, first of all, that’s already a big number,” said Prof Ilan Noy as quoted by The Guardian. Prof Noy is from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. He carried out the study with colleague Rebecca Newman.
“Second, when you compare it to the standard quantification of the cost of climate change [using computer models], it seems those quantifications are underestimating the impact of climate change.”
Noy pointed out that there was no information on the number of people killed or the economic damage caused by multiple major weather disasters. “That indicates our headline number of $140bn is a significant understatement,” he said.
He mentioned that heatwave death data was available only in the case of Europe as an example. “We have no idea how many people died from heatwaves in all of sub-Saharan Africa.”