The year 2022 was described as “annus horribilis” by the president of France Assureurs, Thursday January 26.
Summer drought, hailstorms in the spring, floods… 2022 was a particularly busy year in terms of climatic events in France. And the bill is salty for insurers. The cost of natural disasters should thus amount to 10 billion euros, France Assureurs announced on Thursday. An amount unequaled since 1999, which was swept away by storms Lothar and Martin. “It is truly the annus horribilis”, lamented Florence Lustman, the president of France Assureurs, on Europe 1.
In detail, it was the episodes of hail and storms that hit France between May and July that cost the most (6.4 billion euros). Added to this are the effects of drought. It was so severe last summer that a large number of houses built on clay soil were badly damaged. The total cost of the damage is close to 2.5 billion euros. The problem is likely to grow, because more than half of individual houses (54%) are exposed to the phenomenon known as clay shrinkage-swelling (RGA). It is the result of the retraction of clay soils when it is dry and their swelling when it rains.
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More and more intense and frequent phenomena
2022 stands out singularly from previous years. During the period 2017-2021, climatic phenomena indeed cost an average of 3.5 billion euros per year, notes the professional federation France Assureurs. But the cost of natural disasters is set to continue to rise. The effects of global warming are increasingly visible in Europe and France.
Extreme phenomena are becoming more intense and frequent. Rather pessimistic, insurers predict that, taken together, the total bill for natural disasters will double in France over the next thirty years compared to the previous thirty. It should exceed 140 billion euros. A colossal amount that will inevitably result in higher insurance rates.
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