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Top 10 Climate Disasters Cost the World $122 Billion in 2025
New report identifies the ten most expensive and impactful climate disasters of the year.
Heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, and storms cost the world more than $120 billion in 2025, according to a new Christian Aid report, Counting the Cost 2025. The report underscores the escalating cost of climate change, with fossil fuel companies playing a central role in driving the crisis. The cost of climate inaction is equally clear, as communities continue to bear the brunt of a crisis that could have been averted with urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Key findings:
- The report identifies the year’s 10 costliest extreme events influenced by the climate crisis, each causing over $1 billion in damage. Among these, the Palisades and Eaton wildfires in California alone cost more than $60 billion.
- It examines 10 other significant extreme events that caused massive human and environmental damage, with the greatest toll felt in the world’s poorest counties.
- The UK saw devastating wildfires, caused by record-breaking heatwaves in Scotland. Other major events highlighted in the report include the extensive droughts in Canada, the series of typhoons in the Philippines, and record-breaking fires in the Iberian Peninsula.
- Christian Aid calls for urgent action to cut emissions and ramp up support for vulnerable communities, stressing that the impacts of these disasters can be mitigated with the right steps.
“These disasters are not ‘natural’ — they are the predictable result of continued fossil fuel expansion and political delay,” said Emeritus Professor Joanna Haigh, at Imperial College London.
The ten most financially costly events all had an impact of more than $1 billion with the combined total topping more than $122 billion in damage. Most of these estimates are based only on insured losses, meaning the true financial costs are likely to be even higher, while the human costs are often uncounted.
The report also highlights ten extreme weather events that didn’t rack up big enough insured losses to make the top ten but were just as devastating and often affected millions. These included several events in poorer countries where many people don’t have insurance and where data is less available.
In terms of events which caused the biggest financial cost in 2025, the US bore the brunt, with the fires in California topping the list as the single biggest one-off event at $60 billion in damage and leading to the deaths of more than 400 people. Second on the list were the cyclones and floods that struck Southeast Asia in November causing $25 billion in damage and killing more than 1,750 people across Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam and Malaysia. Third were the devastating floods in China which displaced thousands, caused $11.7 billion in damage and killed at least 30.
No continent was spared from crippling climate disasters in 2025, with at least one disaster in each of the six populated regions of the world making the report. Drought in Brazil, February cyclones in Australia and Réunion island off the coast of Africa and summer wildfires in Spain and Portugal meant no corner of the world was spared.
Asia accounted for four of the top six costliest disasters with flooding in India and Pakistan killing more than 1,860 people, costing up to $6 billion and affecting more than 7 million people in Pakistan alone. More than $5billion in damage was caused by typhoons in the Philippines with more than 1.4 million people displaced.
While the top ten focuses on financial costs, which are usually higher in richer countries because they have higher property values and can afford insurance, some of the most devastating extreme weather events in 2025 hit poorer nations, which have contributed little to causing the climate crisis and have the least resources to respond.
These included flooding in Nigeria in May, and the Democratic Republic of Congo in April, which in combination affected thousands of people with up to 700 deaths in Nigeria alone. The ongoing drought in Iran and West Asia threatens the 10 million people in Tehran with possible evacuation due to a water crisis.
Making the second list of 10 was also some events that stood out for being particularly unusual such as the record-breaking heat that led to wildfires in the highlands of Scotland, with 47,000 hectares burned. Japan faced an extreme year of both heavy snowstorms and record-breaking heatwaves. Worrying climate related extremes were also recorded in Antarctica and the world’s oceans which recorded record breaking sea temperatures and coral bleaching in West Australia which pose major threats to biodiversity.
Christian Aid says these extreme events highlight the need for more urgent action to reduce carbon emissions and accelerate the transition to renewable energy and underlines the importance of providing funding for vulnerable people.
Christian Aid CEO, Patrick Watt, said:
“This year has once again shown the stark reality of climate breakdown. Violent storms, devastating floods and prolonged droughts are turning lives and livelihoods upside down. The poorest communities are first and worst affected.
“These climate disasters are a warning of what lies ahead if we do not accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels. They also underline the urgent need for adaptation, particularly in the global South, where resources are stretched and people are especially vulnerable to climate shocks.
“The suffering caused by the climate crisis is a political choice. It is being driven by decisions to continue burning fossil fuels, to allow emissions to rise, and to break promises on climate finance. In 2026, world leaders must act - supporting communities already adapting at a local level, and providing the resources urgently needed to protect lives, land and livelihoods.”
Joanna Haigh, Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Physics, Imperial College London, said:
“The world is paying an ever-higher price for a crisis we already know how to solve. These disasters are not ‘natural’ — they are the inevitable result of continued fossil fuel expansion and political delay. While the costs run into the billions, the heaviest burden falls on communities with the least resources to recover. Unless governments act now to cut emissions and fund adaptation measures, this misery will only continue."
Mohamed Adow, Director of Nairobi-based energy and climate think tank, Power Shift Africa, said:
“This year lays bare the brutal reality of climate change. While wealthy nations count the financial cost of disasters, millions of people across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean are counting lost lives, homes and futures. In 2026, governments must stop burying their heads in the sand and start responding with real support for the people on the frontlines — through scaled-up finance for those in need and faster emissions reductions."
Davide Faranda, Research Director at the Laboratoire de Science du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE), Institut Pierre Simon Laplace (France), said:
"The events documented in this report are not isolated disasters or acts of nature. They are the predictable outcome of a warmer atmosphere and hotter oceans, driven by decades of fossil fuel emissions. Climate change is now measurably amplifying extreme weather across the world, increasing both its intensity and its cost in terms of lives lost, livelihoods destroyed, and economies damaged. What we are seeing in 2025 is not a warning of the future; it is the present reality of climate breakdown.”
For media enquiries contact:
Joe Ware at jware@christian-aid.org or +447870944485
David Green at dagreen@christian-aid.org or +447961777129