(VOVworld) – More than 600,000 people have been killed due to an increasingly frequent weather related disasters over the past 20 years.

Climate-related disasters like flooding are on the rise. Photo:IRIN/Tung X. Ngo

The fact was indicated in a report issued by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) on Monday, on the sidelines of the 21^st Climate Change Conference (COP21) to be held in Paris at the end of this month. Since 1995, more than 600,000 lives have lost and 4.1 billion people have been injured, left homeless or in need of emergency assistance as a result of weather-related disasters. In total, an average of 335 weather-related disasters were recorded per year between 2005 and 2014, an increase of 14% from 1995-2004, and almost twice the level recorded during 1985-1995. The report mentioned economic losses and damage to critical infrastructure and called for an agreement on climate change in the upcoming COP21.

COP21 is scheduled to take place next Monday. 195 UN member countries will discuss ways to keep the increase in average global temperature below 2 degree Celsius by 2100. One of the most efficient measures is reducing greenhouse gas emission.