Nat cat losses in H1 show clear evidence of climate change – Munich Re
The insurance sector and society at large must do more to adapt to climate change in order to mitigate the impact of more extreme weather events.
This was the main finding from a report on natural disasters in the first half of 2024 from German reinsurer Munich Re.
According to the report, severe thunderstorms and flooding were the main drivers of natural disaster losses in Europe and worldwide between January and June.
The report states that the continued progress of climate change will see “ever-increasing amounts of precipitation”, a trend that will translate into “higher claims payments for insurers”.
Flooding, severe storms and two earthquakes contributed to global natural disaster losses of $120bn between January and June.
The figure was less than the $140bn losses suffered in H1 2023, due to the extensive damage caused by the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey.
However, it was well above the 10-year and 30-year averages, supporting the worrying trend of increasingly extreme weather events.
Similarly, global insured losses of $62bn were more than half of the total losses figure and well above the 10-year average of $37bn.
So-called ‘non-peak perils’ such as thunderstorms, flooding and forest fires were the main contributors, accounting for 68% of total losses and 76% of insured losses.
In Europe, the main events were thunderstorms and flooding in Germany due to unprecedented levels of rainfall with some regions experiencing as much as 135mm in a matter of days.
This led to rivers overflowing their banks and extensive flooding – the costliest event was a flooding in Southern Germany which produced total losses of $5bn and insured losses of $2.2bn.
In addition to flooding, some of which took place in regions where such events are rare, such as Dubai, there were also unusually high temperatures around the globe – all of which suggests that it is “highly likely” that climate change played a part in these worrying trends, according to Munich Re.
“The changing statistics on weather data are an increasingly clear sign,” said Ernst Rauch, chief climate scientist at Munich Re.
“Many of the recently observed record temperatures can hardly be explained without climate change. When the atmosphere is one degree warmer, it can absorb 7% more moisture – which means more energy for weather extremes and heavy precipitation.”
Consequently, Munich Re has called for more action and adaptation to limit the potential losses. “Climate change entails evolving risks that everyone – society, the economy, and the insurance sector alike – will have to adapt to, so as to mitigate the growing losses from weather-related events,” said Thomas Blunck, member of the board of management at Munich Re.
