Disaster toll in billions.

• Position: Recent Trends - Brief Article

The financial toll from natural catastrophes worldwide could top $70 billion by the end of 2002, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has said.

Releasing findings of a study conducted by a reinsurance company, Munich Re, which is part of the agency's Finance Initiative, UNEP told the New Delhi Conference on Climate Change that there had been over 500 major natural disasters in 2002, killing thousands of people, rendering hundreds of thousands homeless and affecting millions of others. The disasters had cost countries about $56 billion during the first three quarters of this year. The bill comes as a result of record breaking rains, devastating floods in Europe, the destruction of homes across the Caribbean and life-threatening mudslides in India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

"Climate change, linked with human-made emissions, is already under way", said UNEP Executive Director Klaus...