U.N. and World Bank Report Says Act Now or Pay Much More Later for Climate Disasters

By NATHANIAL GRONEWOLD of ClimateWire

Published: November 11, 2010

UNITED NATIONS — Annual monetary losses for natural disasters are expected to rise to $185 billion worldwide by the end of the century, even without factoring in the anticipated negative impacts of climate change, a new joint U.N. and World Bank study concludes.

With climate change included, the global annual losses could increase by anywhere from $28 billion to $68 billion. But governments can drastically reduce these losses and rising mortality rates by implementing preventive systems and infrastructure changes that are much cheaper and simpler than the post-disaster cleanup that has been drawing so much public funds recently.

(Read the article on the NYT. Free subscription.)