UCL indexes natural disasters

Research UCL - 10 December, International Climate Day - press release. 2017: fewer disasters but more cost damages, reports researchers of University of Louvain (UCL) EMDAT is an international reference database, which monitors human and economic impacts of disasters for 184 countries from 1900 until today. It is maintained by the "Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters - CRED" of the University of Louvain (UCL), headed by Prof. Debarati Guha-Sapir. The EMDAT database provides authoritative data on climate extremes for international bodies such as the European Space Agency, GIEC and the UNFCCC or UN FAO. The EMDAT database (International Disaster Database) reports much lower numbers of victims (total deaths + total affected) compared to the annual average of the last two decades. There is approximately a decrease of about 30% in the number of incidents. 2017 has been a very clement year in terms of disaster related deaths and affected with a third or less people victimized by these climate-related hazards globally.