Extreme weather fuelled by the climate crisis has cost some of the world’s poorest countries $156 billion (£116bn) across the past two decades, the Independent can reveal.
Intense drought, flooding, cyclones and more have impacted 364 million people and caused more than 42,000 deaths since 2000– 17,000 of which can be directly attributed to climate change. The nations hardest hit are Somalia, Haiti and Uganda.
Researchers at ODI Global, an international think tank, also found the climate crisis had contributed to billions of dollars worth of agricultural losses, with farmers across Somalia and Ethiopia forced to abandon their livelihoods amid growing food scarcity, saying the stark findings should serve as a “wake-up call for global policymakers”.
“If the UK suffered tens of billions of pounds worth of damage caused by other countries’ actions, our government and the public would rightfully be shouting from the rooftops about the injustice,” Mike Childs, head of policy at Friends of the Earth told The Independent.
“Yet this is the reality for many countries on the frontlines of climate breakdown that have contributed virtually nothing to global emissions”.
The figures come after Donald Trump slashed US aid spending, with the UK also planning on cutting billions of pounds in funding, with The Independent reporting on the devastating impact for countries most affected by the climate crisis thanks to losing support for food and disaster prevention.
“It’s deeply unjust that those who have done the least to contribute to the climate crisis are paying most dearly for it – the UK has a central role to play in righting that injustice,” Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Green Party, said. “While governments like ours delay, countries like Somalia and Ethiopia, and small island nations – some of the world’s poorest countries – are paying the price.”
“The government’s recent cuts to the foreign aid budget are particularly disturbing in this context, with so many across the world relying on essential humanitarian aid as a result of extreme weather caused by the climate crisis,” added Ms Denyer.
The study of 53 low-income countries includes 36 small-island developing states in the Caribbean, Pacific and the Atlantic, and 17 countries in the Sahel and the Greater Horn of Africa.
Since the year 2000, these countries suffered $395 billion in losses and damages from extreme weather events, $156bn of which can be attributed to the climate crisis.
“Every year, we see more devastation from the worsening effects of climate change,” said Emily Wilkinson, principal research fellow at ODI Global.
“Wealthier nations urgently need to scale up climate finance and also make sure it reaches the right places. For remote or unstable places [facing conflict or other vulnerabilities], such as those featured in the study, getting projects off the ground might be harder, but the benefits will also be more keenly felt by affected populations.”
In 2023, the Cop28 climate summit agreed to the creation of the Loss and Damage Fund, which would provide financial support for some destruction caused by climate change. But wealthy, higher polluting countries pledged a total of $768 million to the fund; a fraction of the financial losses that vulnerable countries face, and will continue to face. It was agreed this year that the fund will pay out $250 million of this sum until the end of 2026.
To calculate the proportion of losses and damages resulting from climate change, ODI Global’s research uses climate mapping studies combined with figures from EM-DAT, the international database covering 26,000 mass disasters worldwide, and United Nations disaster reports.
