Extreme weather cost $2tn globally over past decade, report finds

A man cleans debris inside a gas station in Lakewood Park, Florida, in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton. Photograph: Giorgio Viera/AFP/Getty Images

Violent weather cost the world $2tn over the past decade, a report has found, as diplomats descend on the Cop29 climate summit for a tense fight over finance.

The analysis of 4,000 climate-related extreme weather events, from flash floods that wash away homes in an instant to slow-burning droughts that ruin farms over years, found economic damages hit $451bn across the past two years alone.