France is the second country having experienced the greatest number of events of natural disastersnatural disasters in 2024, after the United States. This data comes from the Permanent Observatory of Natural Disasters, which records daily all natural disasters in the world, and gives three indicators for each: the type of event, the number of human victims and the cost of the disaster.
The year 2024, in numbers
- THE floodsfloods (7,011) and heatwavesheatwaves (5,945) cause the most victims worldwide, followed by movementsmovements of land (2,604) and the cyclonescyclones (2 483).
- Asia has the highest number of victims, most of whom lost their lives due to floods.
- In Europe, the three most frequent disasters are avalanchesavalanchesfires and thunderstormsthunderstorms. On the other hand, it is heatwaves which cause the majority of deaths and the same observation is made in Africa.
Reducing the frequency and intensity of natural disasters means slowing down the global warmingglobal warmingtherefore stabilizing the rise in temperatures, and therefore achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. However, between now and then, thousands of natural disasters, more or less serious, will occur. If we wish to minimize the number of victims, as well as the economic and environmental impacts, it is essential to have a plan of preparation, adaptation, resilienceresilience. As the Red Cross titled it in a report published in June 2023: are we capable of confronting these crises? If we stick to the senatorial report of September 2024, which points to a lack of anticipation and resources in the face of the risk of flooding, the answer is no.
