Low-income Countries

Periods of extremely hot weather cost the global economy an estimated $16 trillion [blank] 1992 and 2013, while hitting the poorest countries four times as hard as the richest ones. "Our work reveals that we have underestimated both the costs [blank] climate change so far and how sensitive our economy is at present to climate variations," says Justin Mankin at Dartmouth University [blank] New Hampshire. Previous studies have shown that climate change hits the poorest nations hardest, despite them contributing the least [blank] climate change. This is partly because many low-income countries are in the tropics and have a hotter climate to begin with. New data on economic growth allowed Mankin and Christopher Callahan, also at Dartmouth College, to look at the impact [blank] extreme heat at a regional level and use models to fill in the data in parts of Africa and Asia where figures were missing. Their analysis revealed that short spells of extreme heat were significant enough to lower the region's economic output for the entire year.