Tracking progress on the economic costs of disasters under the indicators of the sustainable development goals

ABSTRACT

The Sustainable Development Goals indicator framework identifies as an indicator of progress the objective of reducing disaster losses as a proportion of global gross domestic product. This short analysis presents data on this indicator from 1990. In constant 2017 US dollars, both weather-related and non-weather related catastrophe losses have increased, with a 74% increase in the former and 182% increase in the latter since 1990. However, since 1990 both overall and weather/climate losses have decreased as proportion of global GDP, indicating progress with respect to the SDG indicator. Extending this trend into the future will require vigilance to exposure, vulnerability and resilience in the face of uncertainty about the future frequency and magnitude of extreme events.

KEYWORDS:

• Disaster losses
• sustainable development goals
• GDP

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicators/indicators-list/.

2 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/NYGDPMKTPCDWLD.

3 Data for years more recent than that reported in Hoeppe (2016) come from Munich Re online data at http://natcatservice.munichre.com. Aon Benfield data for losses are reported from 2000 (Aon Benfield, 2018).