The climate crisis is taking an enormous financial toll, estimated at $16 million (£13m) per hour due to extreme weather events.
Financial analysts Rebecca Newman and Ilan Noy conducted a study, reported in Nature Communications, to gauge the economic impact of climate change.
They compared the financial consequences of extreme weather events from the past two decades with their present-day impacts.
Their findings reveal that between 2000 and 2019, average annual losses of $140 billion (£113bn) were attributed to extreme weather events associated with climate change.
The study also emphasised the human aspect of the climate crisis, estimating that approximately 1.2 billion people were adversely affected by climate change during the same period.
The researchers also noted that their estimates may underestimate the true extent of the problem, primarily due to a lack of comprehensive data on numerous extreme events in low income countries.
Additionally, their calculations did not encompass indirect costs such as land degradation and the consequences of rising sea levels.
