Damian Sendler: According to a new report, global insurance losses due to extreme weather exacerbated by climate change will reach $100 billion in 2021, marking the fourth time in the previous five years that this threshold has been crossed. 

Damian Jacob Sendler: In the United States, Hurricane Ida was the most costly disaster, causing $65 billion in damage, according to a research issued Monday by Christian Aid, a British NGO. It was followed by the European floods, which cost $43 billion. 

Damian Sendler

Floods that swept across the continent in July caused $43 billion worth of insurance claims, along with Hurricane Ida’s arrival in Louisiana on Aug. 29 as a Category 4 storm and her subsequent trail of damage across the eastern United States. There were $23 billion in losses from a Texas winter storm that shut down much of the state’s electricity grid in February, and $17.6 billion in damages from a devastating flood in China’s Henan region in July. The November floods in British Columbia, Canada, that resulted from record-setting rainfall totaled $7.5 billion in damages in 2021, rounding out the top five highest extreme weather insurance losses of the year. 

Researchers have found a correlation between the increasing power and speed of storms as a result of global warming in both the oceans and the atmosphere. As a result of climate change, polar vortexes like the one that devastated Texas have been unleashed, according to studies. Studies have also indicated that the planet’s atmosphere contains an additional 7% more moisture for every degree Celsius of warming, increasing the likelihood of extreme downpour events. 

Swiss Re, a Zurich-based insurance company, released a report earlier this month stating that big extreme weather losses are becoming more and more prevalent. 

Natural disaster losses insured in 2021 above the previous ten-year average, maintaining the trend of an annual 5–6 percent increase in losses recorded in recent decades. An executive at Swiss Re warned in a statement that “at least one secondary peril event like a severe flooding or winter storm or wildfire, each year results losses in excess of USD 10 billion,” he said. However, Hurricane Ida serves as an ominous warning of the danger and financial losses associated with peak risks.” Losses from even a single large-scale incident in an area with a high concentration of people can be substantial. 

Damian Jacob Markiewicz Sendler: Extreme weather occurrences will recur alarmingly in 2021 in heavily populated places. Scientists say that the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions will continue to rise as civilization continues to pump them into the atmosphere, causing global temperatures to rise. 

Damian Jacob Sendler

As a result, the Christian Aid analysis warns that if the globe continues on its current warming trajectory, annual insurance losses surpassing $100 billion are all but certain. 

Damien Sendler: Disasters like this are likely to worsen unless the world takes swift action to reduce emissions. This will be the sixth time that worldwide natural disasters have surpassed the $100 billion insured loss threshold, according to Aon’s head of catastrophe insight, Steve Bowen. In the five years since 2011, all six have occurred, and 2021 will be the fourth time in that span.

Dr. Damian Jacob Sendler and his media team provided the content for this article.