WASHINGTON, May 19 — The financial toll of the El Niño phenomenon lingers for years and costs trillions in lost income worldwide, new research has revealed, reported the German News Agency (dpa).
El Niño describes the warming of surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean that alters air and water currents worldwide.
Researchers at the United States’ Dartmouth College looked at global economic activity in the decades following the 1982 – 1983 and 1997 – 1998 El Niño events and found a ‘persistent signature’ of slowed economic growth more than five years later.
The study, published in the journal Science, found the global economy bled US$4.1 trillion (RM18.6 trillion) and US$5.7 trillion (RM25.9 trillion) in the half-decade after each of the events, most of it borne by the world’s poorest nations in the tropics.
Researchers Justin Mankin and Christopher Callahan project that global economic losses for the 21st Century will amount to US$84 trillion (RM382.4 trillion) as climate change potentially amplifies the frequency and strength of El Niño.
The El Niño predicted for 2023 could hold the global economy back by as much as US$3 trillion (RM13.6 trillion) by 2029, they said.
“We can say with certainty that societies and economies absolutely do not just take a hit and recover,” Callahan said.
“In the tropics and places that experience the effects of El Niño, you get a persistent signature during which growth is delayed for at least five years,” he said.
The estimated cost of global warming had to include the impact of El Niño, Mankin said.
“Our welfare is affected by our global economy, and our global economy is tied to the climate,” he said.
“El Niño amplifies the wider inequities in climate change, disproportionately impacting the least resilient and prepared among us.”
El Niño usually brings severe drought in Australia, parts of Africa and South America, and heavy rainfall along the US Pacific coast.
— Bernama
