2024's natural catastrophes cause huge insured losses

What's in store for insurers amid record high natural catastrophe losses?

2024's natural catastrophes cause huge insured losses

Insurance News

By Josh Recamara

Natural catastrophes continued to place significant pressure on global insurance markets in 2024, with global insured losses exceeding US$140 billion, marking the fifth consecutive year that insured damages topped US$100 billion.

Total economic damages from these events exceeded US$350 billion, underscoring the lack of resilience to climate-related risks. In addition, wildfires in Los Angeles have already caused insurance loss estimates in the region of US$30 billion to US$40 billion in the first few weeks of 2025.

Natural Catastrophe Review

The Natural Catastrophe Review, a biannual publication, explores the physical, vulnerability, and socioeconomic factors contributing to the largest natural catastrophes in the latter half of 2024. The report goes beyond the statistics, offering insights on improving natural catastrophe risk management and resilience across sectors.

Key highlights include:

  • Unprecedented natural catastrophes: Notable events in 2024 included the Valencia floods in Spain, which caused €3.7 billion in claims, the highest insurance claims for natural catastrophes in Canada (US$5.6 billion), hurricanes Helene and Milton in Florida (combined US$45 billion), and the deadliest Western Pacific typhoon season since 2013.
  • Climate-driven risks: 2024 marked the first year on record to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The increasing financial toll from natural catastrophes is tied to the growing number and value of assets at risk. Climate change is increasingly linked to these events, with hurricanes Helene and Milton, the South American drought, and Storm Boris in Europe being connected to human-caused warming.
  • Call to action on resilience: The report highlights the need for improved risk modelling, innovative insurance solutions, and proactive adaptation measures to mitigate the growing impacts of climate change on economies and societies.

“Our long-standing collaboration with scientists gives us better insights into growing exposure to perils, especially perils that are changing rapidly,” commented Helene Galy, head of WTW Research Network. “It’s easy to be lured by the increased sophistication of risk models: a deeper understanding of data and science are critical to identify real improvements and remaining limitations of risk models, to make them more useful to decision-makers.”

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