Asia bears biggest climate-change brunt amid extreme weather: WMO

World Meteorological Organization says floods and storms were leading cause of casualties and economic losses as impact of heatwaves becomes more severe.

Asia was the region most affected by climate change, weather and water-related hazards globally last year, the United Nations weather agency has said.

In a report published on Tuesday, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said floods and storms were the main cause of casualties and economic damage in 2023, while the impact of heatwaves became more severe.

It found that Asia has been warming faster than the global average, with temperature rises in 2023 averaging nearly 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1961-90 average.

“Many countries in the region experienced their hottest year on record in 2023, along with a barrage of extreme conditions, from droughts and heatwaves to floods and storms,” WMO chief Celeste Saulo said in a statement.

She added that climate change “exacerbated the frequency and severity of such events”, calling the report’s conclusions “sobering”.

The agency said 79 disasters associated with water-related weather hazards were reported in Asia last year. Of those, some 80 percent were floods and storms, with more than 2,000 deaths and nine million people directly affected.

The State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report also found that floods were the leading cause of death in reported events in 2023 “by a substantial margin”.

Hong Kong recorded 158.1mm (6.2 inches) of rainfall in one hour on September 7 – the highest since records began in 1884 – as a result of a typhoon.

The report also highlighted that most glaciers in the high mountain region in Asia had lost significant mass because of record-breaking high temperatures and