In the wake of heat waves, global warming, forest fires, storms, droughts and a rising number of hurricanes, the UN's World Meteorological Agency (WMA) is warning that the number of people who need international humanitarian help could rise 50 per cent by 2030 compared to the 108 million who needed it in 2018.

In a report on Tuesday, the WMA says more disasters attributed to weather are taking place each year. It said over 11,000 disasters have been attributed to weather, climate and phenomena like tsunamis that are related to water over the past 50 years, causing 2 million deaths and racking up $3.6 trillion worth of economic costs.