$228 billion lost, 2,000 lives taken: The shocking cost of 10 worst climate disasters of 2024 revealed

2024 year-ender: Ever wondered what is the economic cost of extreme weather events? Well, the ten worst climate disasters resulted in an estimated damage of over $228 billion worldwide in 2024, a new report revealed. These disasters left over 2,000 people dead worldwide, as per the report. 

Most of these estimates are based only on insured losses, which means the actual costs incurred due to these calamities are likely to be even higher, while the human costs are often uncounted.

The report titled ‘Counting the Cost 2024: A Year of Climate Breakdown’ by Christian Aid also highlights ten extreme weather events that didn’t rack up big enough insured losses to make the top ten but were just as devastating and often affected millions. These included several events in poorer countries, where many people don’t have insurance and data availability is poor.

US bore the brunt

Among the biggest financial losses in 2024, the US bore half of the damage, with October’s Hurricane Milton topping the list as the single biggest one-off event at $60 billion in damage and killing 25 people. Hurricane Helene, which struck the US, Cuba and Mexico in September, caused damages amounting to $55 billion and left 232 people dead.

In fact, the US was hit by so many costly storms throughout the year that even when hurricanes were removed, the other convective storms cost more than $60 billion in damage and killed 88 people.

No part of the world was spared from crippling climate disasters in 2024, with floods in China costing $15.6 billion and killing 315 people, and Typhoon Yagi which battered southwest Asia, killing more than 800 people. Yagi made landfall on September 2 in the Philippines, before moving on to Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand, where it triggered landslides, flash flooding and damaged hundreds of thousands of homes and agricultural land.

Europe accounted for 3 costliest disasters

Europe accounted for three of the top 10 costliest disasters with Storm Boris in central Europe and floods in Spain and Germany costing a combined $13.87 billion and killing 258 people, 226 of which were in Valencia’s floods in October.

In Brazil, host of the COP-30 climate summit in 2025, floods in the state of Rio Grande do Sul killed 183 people and caused $5 billion in damage. The UK didn’t make the list this year but in December the Environment Agency warned that a quarter of properties in England, eight million, could be at risk of flooding by 2050 due to climate change

While the top ten focuses on financial costs, which are usually higher in richer countries because they have higher property values and can afford insurance, some of the most devastating extreme weather events in 2024 hit poorer nations, which have contributed little to causing the climate crisis and have the least resources to respond.

These included Cyclone Chido which devastated the islands of Mayotte in December and may have killed more than a thousand people. A terrible drought in Colombia saw the Amazon River there drop by 90 per cent, threatening the livelihoods of Indigenous people who rely on it for food and transport.

Heatwaves affected 33 million people in Bangladesh whilst also worsening the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. West Africa was hit with terrible floods, which affected more than 6.6 million people in Nigeria, Chad and Niger.

In Southern Africa, the worst drought in living memory affected more than 14 million people in Zambia, Malawi, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Christian Aid says these extreme events highlight the need for more urgent action to reduce carbon emissions and accelerate the transition to renewable energy and underlines the importance of providing funding for vulnerable people.

“The human suffering caused by the climate crisis reflects political choices. There is nothing natural about the growing severity and frequency of droughts, floods and storms. Disasters are being supercharged by decisions to keep burning fossil fuels, and to allow emissions to rise. And they’re being made worse by the consistent failure to deliver on financial commitments to the poorest and most climate-vulnerable countries," Patrick Watt, CEO, Christian Aid said in the report.

"In 2025 we need to see governments leading, and taking action to accelerate the green transition, reduce emissions, and fund their promises, he said.

The Wayanad disaster in India, one among many in 2024, is not, however, among the worst calamities this year. Incessant monsoon rainfall on July 30 this year in Wayanad, in Kerala, led to deadly landslides that killed hundreds of people and caused damage to property valued at over $140 million, according to reports.

Climate change affects the world in different ways, with many of the most harmful impacts not registering on the top 10 list for economic damage, the report said, listing 10 other notable disasters that may not have received the same headlines but are devasting lives around the world. These include:

• Philippines: landslides (January – February)
• Southern Africa: drought (February - July)
• Afghanistan/Pakistan: floods (March – September)
• Colombia: drought (all year)
• United Arab Emirates: floods (April)

• Gaza: heatwave (April).
• Bangladesh: heatwave (April – May).
• East Antarctic: heatwave (July).
• West Africa: floods (August-September).
• Mayotte: Cyclone Chido (December).

Christian Aid is a relief and development charity of 41 Christian churches in Great Britain and Ireland, and works to support sustainable development, eradicate poverty, support civil society and provide disaster relief in South America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

"As countries submit their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in 2025, we need to see far more rapid carbon emissions cuts from rich, polluting nations, the report recommends.

“These developed countries need to heed the warning from the International Energy Agency, and the COP28 agreement in Dubai, and stop developing all new fossil fuel projects and divert the trillions of dollars of subsidies to supporting an energy transition and to climate adaptation both domestically and internationally,” it reads.

Climate change has become a growing threat

In a new report presented at COP29 in November this year, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said climate change has become a growing threat to people already fleeing war, violence and persecution.