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Australia’s destructive ex-tropical cyclone Alfred has been ranked among the world’s most costly disasters fuelled by climate change in 2025.
Economic losses caused by the fierce storm that ravaged southeast Queensland and northern NSW clocked in at roughly $1.8 billion.
The 10 most economically catastrophic events listed by UK-based humanitarian relief charity Christian Aid totalled more than $180 billion in losses, with each costing more than $1.5 billion.
The devastating inferno led to economic damages exceeding $89 billion, primarily from destroyed properties and other related impacts.
The tropical storms and extreme monsoon system was thought to cost around $37.2 billion, making it the second most expensive event of 2025.
The flooding disaster also claimed more than 1,750 lives, making it among the year’s deadliest climate events.
Extreme rainfall and flooding in China in June and August was the third most costly event.
Cataloguing extreme weather events is an annual undertaking for the charity seeking to underline the economic and human toll of a changing climate.
It draws on economic loss calculations made by insurance giant Aon, with most estimates based on insured losses and missing the full costs of lost income, environmental degradation and human displacement.
A burgeoning collection of studies has connected the uptick in greenhouse gas emissions to particular weather phenomena, providing valuable insights for the report.
Following ex-tropical cyclone Alfred, which was the eighth most costly disaster listed, ClimaMeter’s Rapid Attribution Study found the storm dumped more rain than it would have without human-driven climate change.
The storm, which threatened to barrel through densely-populated urban centres as a category four tropical cyclone before it was downgraded ahead of landfall, owed much of its intensity and rainfall extremes to above-average ocean temperatures.
Researchers highlighted that Alfred’s trajectory was unusually far south, raising alarms that increasing ocean temperatures might steer windstorms into uncharted areas, affecting communities unprepared for such events.
Scientists broadly expect fewer cyclones under a warming climate but the ones that do form are more likely to be more intense.
Davide Faranda, research director at the Laboratoire de Science du Climat et de l’Environnement, said the documented events were not isolated disasters or natural.
“They are the predictable outcome of a warmer atmosphere and hotter oceans, driven by decades of fossil fuel emissions,” he said.
Wealthier nations often dominate disaster cost rankings, owing to higher property values and the greater likelihood of their residents having insurance coverage.
Yet the economies of poorer nations are usually hit harder by climate change extremes as these countries have fewer resources to respond.
Christian Aid chief executive officer Patrick Watt said the findings underlined the urgent need for adaptation, particularly in the Global South where resources are stretched.
“The poorest communities are first and worst affected,” he said.
