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Insurers will have to pay the largest amount of compensation in 10 years to cover damage caused by natural disasters in the first half of 2021, including extreme freezing temperatures in the United States, according to an industry report.
Global insured losses from natural disasters, the amount insurers are expected to pay, will reach $ 42 billion (£ 31 billion) for the six-month period, according to preliminary estimates from Aon, an insurer headquartered in is in London.
Climatologists have long predicted that the global climate crisis will contribute to more frequent extreme weather events, such as storms, floods and heat waves, across the world.
Twenty-one weather events caused losses to the entire economy of more than $ 1 billion, as well as an earthquake. The increase in insured losses was primarily caused by extreme weather events in the United States, including freezing conditions that caused chaos and blackouts in southern states including Texas in February.
The event – caused by a “polar vortex” that swept the arctic air south – resulted in insured losses of $ 15 billion, making it the costliest example of extreme winter conditions on record.
Overall economic losses are below their 10-year median of $ 93 billion, Aon said. The deaths of 3,000 people were associated with natural disasters, which was also below the 10-year average. Natural disasters tend to be more costly for insurers in wealthy countries where businesses and citizens are more likely to be insured.
The Aon report highlighted several cases of broken climate records. On June 29, Canada experienced its highest temperature on record, 49.6 ° C (121 ° F), in Lytton, British Columbia. At least 800 deaths were directly linked to the heatwave in Canada and the northwestern United States. At the other end of the scale, Spain recorded its coldest temperature in history, -35.8C (-32F), in Leon on January 7.
Africa recorded its hottest January and June on record, Aon said.
“The juxtaposition of record heat and cold observed around the world has highlighted the humanitarian and structural constraints caused by extreme temperatures,” said Steve Bowen, head of disaster analysis in the forecast team impact of Aon.
Insured losses for the first half of 2021 were higher than any equivalent since 2011, when the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami hit Japan and triggered the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
In Europe, extreme storms at the end of June caused insured losses of $ 4.5 billion. Data for the second half of 2021 will include the costs of severe flooding in Germany.
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