Record number of climate-related disasters in Asia-Pacific: Red Cross

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Dec 17, 2020 06:00 am

KUALA LUMPUR: The Asia-Pacific has faced a record number of climate-related disasters in 2020, affecting tens of millions of vulnerable people already hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Red Cross said yesterday.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said it had responded to 24 climate-linked crises this year in the world's most disaster-prone region - up from 18 in 2019 - including floods, typhoons, and drought.

"Covid-19 has of course aggravated these impacts, with a taste of the compound shocks we're expecting in a changing climate," Mr Maarten van Aalst, director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre said.

South-east Asia was the IFRC's busiest region this year, with 15 emergency responses to disasters including severe floods, storms and landslides in the Philippines and Vietnam that affected more than 31 million people. - REUTERS