Global Assessment of Climate Change-Attributed Loss and Damage

Climate-induced disasters are rapidly escalating, yet the global Loss and Damage (L&D) mechanism remains constrained by the absence of robust, evidence-based frameworks for assessing and allocating support. This study introduces the first global map of realised, climate-attributed loss and damage, integrating disaster event data (EM-DAT), attribution science (Fraction of Attributable Risk, FAR), and equity-sensitive indicators to develop a standardised Expected Annual Loss and Damage (EALD) framework. We assess six key impact indicators—deaths, injuries, homelessness, affected population, national economic loss, and per capita economic loss—across 11,721 climate-related disaster events from 2000 to 2023. Our findings estimate that anthropogenic climate change accounts annually for 89 million people affected, 338,000 rendered homeless, 122,000 injured, 26,700 deaths, and $82.3 billion in PPP-adjusted economic losses. Contrary to prevailing assumptions, high-income countries also experience significant climate-attributed impacts, while 32 nations emerge as high-risk only under attribution-based metrics. We critique the reductive ranking of “particularly vulnerable” countries as a geopolitical beauty contest and instead propose a dual typology based on compound, absolute, and relative risk. We offer this assessment as a more appropriate entry point for investigating how structural vulnerability and emerging hazards, not historical exposure alone, drive climate injustice. Our results highlight a vast gap between pledged and required L&D finance and call for a justice-centred, attribution-informed framework that reflects the lived realities of affected populations across political boundaries.