Extreme Weather is the #1 Global Threat

Did you know that extreme weather and climate disasters cost the U.S. almost $100B in 2023? That’s the official tally from NOAA, which said we experienced 28 billion-dollar disasters caused by heat, hail, hurricanes, floods, drought, wildfires, tornadoes, and severe storms. And with our global temperatures on the rise, the forecast for 2024 does not look better.

So it makes sense that extreme weather – which is clearly exacerbated by climate change – was rated the world’s number one global threat in the much-heralded World Economic Forum Global Risks Perception Survey, which canvasses experts across academia, business, government, and civil society on current and future threats. More concerningly, threats directly tied to climate change – including ecosystem collapse and natural resources shortages – were listed as the top four threats in 10 years. Involuntary migration, which is also being aggravated by climate change, was number seven on that list.

It gives us hope that business leaders are concerned. Along with global conflicts and AI, climate change is one of the most serious threats to our global economy, as well as to companies’ bottom lines. We need private sector investment in clean technology to enable us to transition fast enough to avoid even more catastrophic climate-related disasters.

In our latest “Curated Climate News,” we share these thoughts on the relationship between climate action and business, and take a look at the climate headlines from January: https://lnkd.in/eKkPeTBM