The bill for insurers exceeded the $100-billion mark for the fourth year in a row in 2023. Photo: Mariana SUAREZ / AFP/FileInsured property losses could double in the coming decade due to climate change and more frequent and more intense severe weather events, reinsurance giant Swiss Re warned Tuesday.caused $280 billion in damage worldwide in 2023, including $108 billion covered by insurance companies, Swiss Re said in its annual overview of the cost of disasters and natural catastrophes.
In 2022, the damage caused by natural disasters amounted to $286 billion, while the bill for insurers reached $133 billion.Despite the drop from the previous year, the bill for insurers in 2023 nonetheless exceeded the $100-billion mark for the fourth year in a row."Even without a historic storm on the scale of Hurricane Ian, which hit Florida the year before, global natural catastrophe losses in 2023 were severe," said Swiss Re chief economist Jerome Jean Haegeli.
But the study also found that there were more natural catastrophes causing insured losses in 2023, at a record 142.Haegeli warned that the intensity of storms would be a problem going forward."This demonstrates how urgent the need for action is, especially when taking into account structurally higher inflation that has caused post-disaster costs to soar."