World heading for catastrophe over natural disasters, risk expert warns

With cascading crises - where one event triggers another - set to rise, international disaster risk reduction efforts are woefully underfunded

The world's failure to prepare for natural disasters will have "inconceivably bad" consequences as climate change fuels a huge increase in catastrophic droughts and floods and the humanitarian crises that follow, the UN's head of disaster planning has warned.

Last year, earthquakes, floods, heatwaves and landslides left 22,773 people dead, affected 98.6 million others and caused $66.5bn (47bn) of economic damage (pdf). Yet the international community spends less than half of one per cent of the global aid budget on mitigating the risks posed by such hazards.