Unless the world addresses both the impacts and the prevention of climate change, the global economy will lose about four percent of its gross domestic product. The impact would be felt the most by the least economically developed countries.
These are the estimates provided by the S&P Global rating agency, which has estimated the impacts of climate change on 135 countries worldwide. The world economy would experience a loss of four per cent of global gross domestic product by at least 2050.
Third world countries to suffer the most
Damage from climate change would most often result from rising global ocean levels, more frequent heat waves, droughts or storms. In the baseline scenario, the least developed countries would be much more affected. They would suffer from the impacts of climate change about 3.6 times more than the average rich and most developed countries.
Impact on individual regions will differ
The list of countries estimated to be affected the most would include Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Southeast Asia could lose 10 to 18 percent of its economic output due to climate change, which would be up to ten times more than the least affected region, which would be Europe.
