Climate-Related Flooding and Drought Expected to Cost World’s Major Cities $194 Billion Annually

C40 Cities has revealed new research quantifies the dire impacts of climate-driven drought and flooding on the world’s largest cities and their residents.

C40’s analysis, titled Water Safe Cities, leverages data from the network’s nearly 100 member cities to forecast the potential impacts of global temperature rise on urban economies and infrastructure. The findings show that if global warming continues unabated, 7.4 million people in the world’s largest cities will be exposed to severe river flooding within the next three decades, with damages to urban areas expected to cost $64 billion per year by 2050, even with current levels of global flood protections in place.

C40’s research suggests that devastating river and coastal flooding will unleash enormous economic, health, and social consequences that will affect millions across the globe. While cities across both the Global North and Global South are going to be affected by rising sea levels, populations in the Global South are ten times more likely to be affected by flooding and drought than residents in the Global North. At the same time, residents of Global North cities will face higher urban damage costs than residents of cities in the Global South. As many as 2,400 hospitals and healthcare facilities in C40 cities could be underwater by 2050, with nearly half of them in India. The research underscores that the world’s most vulnerable populations will increasingly find themselves on the front line of the climate crisis and are forced to endure its worst impacts.

Key findings include:

• River flooding alone is expected to cost C40 cities $136 billion in GDP each year over the next three decades.
• More frequent and severe droughts will increase water losses in C40 cities by 26 percent and will cost $111 billion in damages per year over the next three decades.
• Over 300 power stations across C40 cities are at risk of being flooded by 2050. More than half of the power stations affected are located in US cities. The potential loss of energy from these stations would be sufficient to power 8.4 million U.S. homes for a full year.

Sadiq Khan, chair of C40 Cities and Mayor of London, said: “The climate emergency is one of the biggest global threats we face today. Here in London we are already experiencing first-hand the devastating impact of the climate crisis, with flash flooding last summer impacting homes, businesses, train stations, hospitals and bringing life in parts of the capital to a halt.

More from ULI:

• Water Wise: Strategies for Drought-Resilient Development
• On Safer Ground: Floodplain Buyouts and Community Resilience
• Harvesting the Value of Water
• More on ULI Urban Resilience