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Climate change and natural disasters: macroeconomic performance and distributional impacts

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Abstract

Commonly occurring natural events become natural disasters when they affect the population through death and injury, and/or through the destruction of natural and physical capital on which people rely for their livelihood and quality of life. Climate change plays a role in that it tends to increase the frequency and intensity of weather-related natural disasters. Additionally, climate change may put people at risk by influencing access to water, coastal flooding, disease and hunger, and leaving them with a more degraded environment, leading, in turn, to increased vulnerability. The purpose of this paper is to present a review and synthesis of the literature and case studies addressing differential impacts of climate change-related natural disasters on a society and its economy. Developed and developing countries show different vulnerabilities to natural disasters. Even within countries, impacts vary significantly across population and economic sectors. When losses from natural disasters are large, their cumulative effect can have notable macroeconomic impacts, which feed back to further pronounce existing income inequalities and lower income levels. Impacts tend to be most pronounced for women, the young and elderly, and people of ethnic or racial minorities.

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Notes

  1. In the remainder of this paper we will not address earthquakes when discussing natural disasters because they are not related to climate change. However, they do impose a high toll of death and injury, and have similar macroeconomic implications; specific group vulnerabilities typically hold.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Haewon Chon, Dana Coelho and Julia Miller for their contributions. This research was partially funded by Universidad de las Américas, Puebla, Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla, and the Roy F. Weston Chair in Natural Economics at the School of Public Policy, University of Maryland. We also thank two anonymous referees for their helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics and Business, Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla, Blvd. del Nino Poblano 2901, Unidad Territorial Atlixcáyotl, Puebla, 72430, Mexico

    María Eugenia Ibarrarán

  2. Director, Center for Integrative Environmental Research, Division of Research Co-Director, Engineering and Public Policy, A. James Clark School of Engineering and School of Public Policy Director, Environmental Policy Program, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, 2101 Van Munching Hall, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Matthias Ruth

  3. Center for Integrative Environmental Research, University of Maryland, 2101 Van Munching Hall, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Sanjana Ahmad & Marisa London

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  1. María Eugenia Ibarrarán
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  2. Matthias Ruth
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Correspondence to María Eugenia Ibarrarán.

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Appendices

 

 Appendix 1 Natural disaster statistics for selected nations
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 Appendix 2 Frequency and impact of natural disasters, 1972–2001
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Ibarrarán, M.E., Ruth, M., Ahmad, S. et al. Climate change and natural disasters: macroeconomic performance and distributional impacts. Environ Dev Sustain 11, 549–569 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-007-9129-9

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