MONEY TO BURN

Climate-linked disasters such as fires and floods could bankrupt UK economy | Flooding alone is expected to cost a staggering £34billion this decade | Natural disasters will cost trillions and wipe out the government budget

- DAN VEVERS

Environment Reporter THE cost of climate-linked disasters like storms and floods could get so high they bankrupt the UK economy, research has found.

The study, by cop-monitoring firm Kisters, warned the yearly growth in the costs of natural disasters to the UK is a whopping 11.2 percent.

Flooding cost £6.3 million from 2010-2019 after an alarming growth rate of 425 percent over the last 30 years.

And the UK economy is projected to lose a staggering £34billion to floods this decade, nearly twice the entire annual Scottish Government health budget.

The study by German firm Kisters found if this rate continues, the cost of natural disasters will rocket into the trillions-matching the entire UK Government budget by 2122 and overtaking UK GDP altogether by 2134.

It comes after a damning expert report last month warned Scotland is still ill-prepared for climate change.

And it follows October's unprecedented Storm Babet, which is forecast to cost at least £500million in repairs for the battered north-east from flooding damage.

From 1990 to 2019, Kisters found natural disasters have cost the UK an average £1.1billion per year, with an annual growth rate of 11.2 percent while average UK GDP growth over the same period stands at just 4.1 percent.

It said the possibility of natural disasters in Britain carrying a bigger price tag than the entire UK economy - potentially bankrupting the nation - was "on the horizon".

Senior meteorologist Johan Jacques said: "With climate change escalating at an alarming rate, the findings of this study are deeply concerning but not entirely unexpected.