Extreme weather, driven by climate change, hit every populated continent in 2018, killing, injuring and displacing millions and causing major economic damage costing billions of dollars, according to a report by Christian Aid. Counting the Cost: a year of climate breakdown identifies 10 of the most destructive droughts, floods, fires, heatwaves, typhoons and hurricanes of 2018, each of which caused damage of over US$1 billion. Four of the events cost more than $7 billion each. These figures are likely to be underestimates - in some cases they include only insured losses and do not take into account the costs of lost productivity and uninsured losses.
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