The economic cost of climate-related disasters hit USD 2.25 billion over the last two decades, an increase of more than 250 per cent compared to the previous 20 years, the UN said Wednesday.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) noted that "climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events" such as tsunamis, floods and storms. Between 1978-1997, total losses for climate-related disasters was USD 895 million (780 million euros), UNISDR said in a report by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) at the Universite Catholique de Louvain in Belgium.