A damaged refrigerator was used to transport groceries last month after a flood in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Credit...Anselmo Cunha/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images
By AFP - Agence France Presse
“Alarming” increase in climate disasters in Brazil: Study
Brazil has seen a dramatic increase in climate disasters in recent years compared to the previous two decades, according to a new study.
“Climate disasters have become more frequent and intense in recent decades, reflecting the impacts of climate change,” said the report produced by the Brazilian Alliance for Ocean Literacy with the support of the Brazilian government and UNESCO.
The study, carried out by the research arm of the Federal University of São Paulo and released on Friday, said that in the four years between 2020 and 2023, Brazilian government data showed an annual average of 4,077 climate-related disasters.
This was almost double the 2,073 disasters recorded annually, on average, in the two decades from 2000 to 2019.
The report called this an “alarming scenario.”
The disasters thus categorized include droughts, floods, violent storms, extreme temperatures, cyclones, landslides, earthquakes, and tsunamis.
The study showed a correlation between the climatic disasters suffered in the country and the warming of ocean surface temperatures.
It also stated that a record drought and floods in Brazil in 2024 increased the climate challenges the South American nation was facing.
“Economic losses caused by climate disasters in Brazil have increased significantly in recent decades, reflecting the growing impacts of climate change,” the study said.
It estimated the cost of this damage in Brazil between 1995 and 2023 at US$88.4 billion.
The researchers emphasized “the urgency of measures to mitigate the impacts of climate change,” making the world strive to achieve the goals set out in the historic Paris Agreement to curb global warming.
In addition, “it is essential to strengthen the resilience of natural and human systems to cope with the impacts that are already occurring,” they said.
In November 2025, Brazil will host COP30, the UN climate conference that aims to improve international coordination to deal with climate change and its impact.
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