Tracking and attributing losses and damages from extreme weather events globally

Climate change is increasing and extreme weather events around the world are becoming more frequent and intense. Yet, tracking and attributing their complex impacts, namely losses and damages affecting human societies, remains far from trivial. The Climate Damage Tracker develops simple methods that can be deployed rapidly and globally to estimate attributable impacts in the aftermath of extreme weather events. It produces near-real-time results that can be communicated in a timely manner to a broad audience, raising awareness about the impacts of extreme weather and the role of climate change. To date, methodologies attributing direct economic impacts from tropical cyclones and heat-related mortality have been operationalised and applied in diverse geographic and socioeconomic contexts. Here, we will present a synthesis of the rapid studies conducted over the past two years. We will further reflect on the uptake of Climate Damage Tracker outputs in the media and discuss how these findings can inform litigation and policy-relevant discussions around disaster preparedness, measuring adaptation progress and funding Loss and Damage. Finally, we will outline future directions for consolidating existing methodologies and expanding the scope of the Climate Damage Tracker to additional impact and hazard types.