Global Increase in Climate-Related Disasters

Intense climate-related natural disasters—floods, storms, as well as droughts and heat waves—have been on the rise worldwide. Is there an ominous link between the global increase of these hydrometeorological and climatological events on the one side and anthropogenic climate change on the other? This paper considers three main disaster risk factors—rising population exposure, greater population vulnerability, and increasing climate-related hazards—behind the increased frequency of intense climate-related natural disasters. All are positively linked—with precipitation positively associated with hydrometeorological events and negatively associated with climatological events. Global climate change indicators also show positive and highly significant effects.