Arthur Pereira, edited by Laura Laplaud
The ten biggest climate disasters in 2021 in the world cost 170 billion dollars, reveals a report by a British NGO, published on Monday. This is an increase of 24% compared to 2020. Record figures which worry insurers.
Hundreds of homes have been destroyed by violent fires in the US state of Colorado, hit by a historic drought this winter linked to global warming. Disasters are increasing. The ten most important of 2021 cost 170 billion dollars, according to a report by a British NGO. An increase of 24% compared to 2020.
Record numbers
While the cost of natural disasters amounted to 1 billion euros in 1980, it now exceeds 3 billion euros. A sum tripled in just 40 years. Florence Lustman, president of the French Federation of Insurers, denounces a lack of preparation at the level of cities and the population. “Only 62% of the municipalities that are exposed to a risk have a municipal safeguard plan,” she explains.
“The French are very concerned by natural risks. On the other hand, their level of individual preparation in the face of these natural risks remains very insufficient,” she continues. Indeed, according to a report published last October, less than half of French people would know how to react in the event of a flood and barely more than half would be able to act in the face of a forest fire or a storm.
Main victims of climate change, farmers’ plots also rarely remain insured. “Paradoxically, they are the least well insured against climatic hazards, since only 33% of farms are insured,” explains Florence Lustman.
For 2021, insurers expect compensation costs to be higher than in 2020.