Climate-related disasters caused severe economic harm in 2025, with the 10 most costly responsible for damage exceeding €100 billion.
Only officially recorded damages are assessed, so the true figure, when uninsured losses and long-term environmental damage are taken into account, is believed to be much higher.
The human cost is incalculable, with thousands of lives lost and the livelihoods and plans of many more people destroyed.
The analysis carried out for Christian Aid shows the wildfires that raged in California last January were the most expensive in financial terms, assessed at more than $60 billion (€51 billion).
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Fatalities directly caused by the fires numbered 31 but around 400 more are believed to have resulted indirectly.
A spate of cyclones and associated extreme rain and flooding in November killed 1,750 people and cost at least $25 billion in Thailand, Indonesia, Sr Lanka, Vietnam and Malaysia.
Extreme flooding in China, India and Pakistan; back-to-back typhoons in the Philippines, Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica, floods in Texas and a prolonged drought in Brazil each caused damages exceeding $1 billion while hundreds of people died.
Conor O’Neill, head of policy at Christian Aid Ireland, said: “The costs of inaction – in destroyed homes, devastated livelihoods and lost lives – far, far outweigh the money we ought to spend now to tackle this crisis.”
Other extreme weather-related events are also chronicled in the report which says “no continent was spared from crippling climate disasters”.
Wildfires destroyed 47,000 hectares of moor, woodland and highlands in Britain; 260,000 hectares in Portugal and 383,000 hectares in Spain.
Drought crippled several countries in South America, Iran and west Asia while floods caused devastation in Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo.
“The world is paying an ever-higher price for a crisis we already know how to solve,” said Joanna Haigh, emeritus professor of atmospheric physics at Imperial College London.
“These disasters are not ‘natural’ – they are the inevitable result of continued fossil fuel expansion and political delay.”
Christian Aid said while the high bills arose in richer countries, the impact of climate-related disasters was disproportionately severe on poorer countries.
“Communities in the countries we work in are especially vulnerable to climate shocks, often lacking insurance and adequate social safety nets,” said Mr O’Neill.
“The landmark 2015 Paris Agreement was based around the polluter pays principle, whereby the wealthy, high-emitting countries who overwhelmingly caused the crisis committed to provide the resources needed to fix it.
“However, long-pledged financial support is still not flowing to developing countries at the scale and speed required.
“In 2026, world leaders must address this injustice and act with urgency. This means meeting our climate finance targets, investing in climate action, and breaking our dependence on fossil fuels to urgently reduce emissions.”
