Asia was world’s most disaster-prone region in 2023: WMO report

Asia remained the world’s most disaster-hit region in terms of weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2023, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released on 23 April. Floods and storms caused the highest number of reported casualties and economic losses, whilst the impact of heatwaves became more severe, according to The State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report.

The report also highlighted the accelerating rate of key climate change indicators such as surface temperature, glacier retreat and sea level rise, which will have major repercussions for societies, economies and ecosystems in the region.

In 2023, sea-surface temperatures in the north-west Pacific Ocean were the highest on record. Even the Arctic Ocean suffered a marine heatwave, a WMO news release said.

The report warns that Asia is warming faster than the global average. The warming trend has nearly doubled since the 1961–1990 period, the release explains.

In 2023, a total of 79 disasters associated with hydro-meteorological hazard events were reported in Asia, according to the Emergency Events Database, which contains essential core data on the occurrence and effects of over 22,000 mass disasters in the world from 1900 to the present day.

Of these 79 disasters, over 80% were related to flood and storm events, with more than 2 000 fatalities and nine million people directly affected. Despite the growing health risks posed by extreme heat, heat-related mortality is frequently not reported, the release said.

The annual mean near-surface temperature over Asia in 2023 was the second highest on record, 0.91 °C [0.84 °C–0.96 °C] above the 1991–2020 average and 1.87 °C [1.81 °C–1.92 °C] above the 1961–1990 average. Particularly high average temperatures were recorded from western Siberia to central Asia and from eastern China to Japan. Japan and Kazakhstan each had record warm years.

In 2023, over 80% of reported hydrometeorological hazards in Asia were flood and storm events, according to EM-DAT data. “Specifically, floods were the leading cause of death in reported events in 2023 by a substantial margin. In India, Yemen, and Pakistan, floods were the natural hazard event which caused the greatest number of fatalities, highlighting the continuing high level of vulnerability of Asia to natural hazard events, especially floods, the WMO release highlights.

“The report’s conclusions are sobering. Many countries in the region experienced their hottest year on record in 2023, along with a barrage of extreme conditions, from droughts and heatwaves to floods and storms. Climate change exacerbated the frequency and severity of such events, profoundly impacting societies, economies, and, most importantly, human lives and the environment that we live in,” WMO secretary-general Celeste Saulo said in the release.

Earlier in the week, the WMO, along with the Copernicus Climate Change Service, unveiled a similar report on the state of climate change in Europe.

Also read: Europe saw record number of extreme heat stress days in 2023: Report