 The toll of droughts: Environmental impacts, economic costs, and international consequencesIoannis Tikoudis, Margaux Gabriel and Walid Oueslati No 260, OECD Environment Working Papers from OECD Publishing Abstract: This paper examines the environmental, economic, and wider impacts of droughts, using statistical analyses, literature reviews, and ex-post calculations. Droughts contribute to land degradation and affect animal survival, though evidence on the resilience of fauna to droughts is limited. Strong evidence suggests that droughts reduce plant biomass in forests, wetlands, and croplands. Agriculture suffers significant losses, as crop volumes are estimated to drop by 5-22% in the driest years. Droughts also disrupt fluvial transport and hydroelectric power generation, though the economic impact on these sectors is harder to systematically quantify. The study finds that economic losses and damages due to droughts may be increasing at an annual rate that exceeds 3.0%, implying that the average drought episode in 2025 is at least twice as costly as it was in 2000. Additionally, droughts influence migration patterns and may contribute to conflict, though most of the evidence remains limited to Sub-Saharan Africa. Keywords: agriculture; climate change; conflict; costs; droughts; ecosystem resilience; environmental security; food security; impacts; losses and damages; migration; water scarcity (search for similar items in EconPapers) There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:envaaa:260-en Access Statistics for this paper More papers in OECD Environment Working Papers from OECD Publishing Contact information at EDIRC. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.