The World Economic Forum warns that climate change could cause an additional 14.5 million deaths and $12.5 trillion in economic losses worldwide by 2050. The report, developed in collaboration with Oliver Wyman, quantifies the health and economic consequences of climate change, estimating a further $1.1 trillion in extra healthcare costs by 2050. The analysis is based on scenarios developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and covers six major climate-driven event categories: floods, droughts, heat waves, tropical storms, wildfires and rising sea levels.
Key takeaways:
- A new study highlights the growing natural hazard of frost quakes, caused by the rapid freezing of water in the ground, which can cause damage to infrastructure. Climate change may make these events more common.
- Generative AI is making it more difficult to detect cyber threats such as phishing emails. Hackers are also using AI tools to clone voices for scams, making it harder to distinguish between real and fake communications.
- A recent U.S. Geological Survey report indicates that nearly 75% of the U.S. could experience potentially damaging earthquakes and intense ground shaking, putting hundreds of millions of people at risk.
- A World Economic Forum report warns that by 2050, climate change may cause an additional 14.5 million deaths and $12.5 trillion in economic losses worldwide, with floods posing the highest acute risk of climate-induced mortality.