Report’s sensational claim of ‘climate breakdown’ is catchy but untrue

How much did climate change cost last year? One major charity says the answer is $US85 billion ($118bn). That claim was repeated by many newspapers — just as it was designed to — yet it is nonsense.

In the final week of last year, large British-based charity Christian Aid released a report, Counting the Cost: A Year of Climate Breakdown, documenting the “huge costs of climate impacts”. The media shared the dramatic findings. But the charity, which receives money from the British and US governments and the European Commission and raised more than £100 million in 2017-18, is scaremongering.