The Cost of This Year’s 10 Worst Climate Disasters: $170 Billion

Ten of this year’s most destructive weather events cost a combined $170 billion in damages, according to a new study.

Hurricane Ida, a tropical storm that pummeled much of the eastern U.S. with lashing rain in August, killed at least 95 people and cost the economy $65 billion. A month earlier, floods in Europe caused 240 deaths and an economic loss of $43 billion, according to research published by U.K. charity Christian Aid. Floods in China’s Henan province in July killed more than 300 and cost in excess of $17 billion.

“The costs of climate change have been grave this year,” said ...