The News
Extreme weather events punctuated the last 12 months: From hurricanes Helene and Milton in the US, to fatal floods in Spain and Africa to wildfires in Greece and Canada, climate disasters in 2024 have been both deadly and costly.
More than 2,000 people in Africa died due to flooding, and estimates suggest the aftermath of Hurricane Helene alone will cost as much as $47 billion. Climate change is driving an uptick in these events. Beyond the immediate damage, extreme weather has also exacerbated global hunger and infectious disease spread, threatening the UN’s sustainable development goals.
This year also saw global temperatures reach 2.7 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, beyond the upper limit set by the 2015 Paris Agreement. Meanwhile, climate summits including COP29, plastic pollution talks, and the COP16 desertification conference were criticized by advocates and policymakers as inadequate, and 2025 may be little better, scientists have warned.
SIGNALS
Extreme weather has cost the world trillions in last decade
A Nov. report by the International Chamber of Commerce found that extreme weather cost the world $2 trillion over the last decade, with the US suffering the most, followed by China and India, The Guardian reported. That reality is being felt “in the here and now by the real economy,” an ICC representative said. These figures still fail to convey the impact on the world’s most vulnerable countries, The Guardian wrote. Extreme flooding in Nigeria in November, for example, affected more than nine million people’s food supply, and it seems these events are becoming increasingly typical: The floods were similar in scale to a 2022 flooding event, which at the time was the country’s worst in more than 30 years.
Climate backlash could make it harder to respond to extreme weather
The outcomes of global elections this year have dramatically altered the world’s climate outlook, Carbon Brief argued; Donald Trump’s win in the US, in particular, is “bad news” for climate action. Trump’s policy proposals could see an additional 4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions being released by the US by 2030 when compared to a scenario that sees current President Joe Biden’s policies remain in place, the outlet found. Meanwhile, the European Union’s green energy policies are not incentivizing enough to be sustained or avoid political backlash, a former European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management told Politico.