At $ 3 trillion, last decade most expensive for natural disasters

LONDON (Reuters): The last decade was the worst on record for economic losses from natural disasters, amounting to $3 trillion – over a trillion more than the previous decade, insurance broker Aon said on Wednesday.

The Asia-Pacific region was the worst-hit in the 2010-2019 period, accounting for 44% of the total, with earthquakes, tsunamis and tropical cyclones among the disasters, Aon said in a report.

More intense weather events, bigger populations in the path of disasters and greater supply chain disruption in a globalised economy contributed to the sharp rise in economic damage, Aon said.

“Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the last decade of natural disasters was the emergence of previously considered 'secondary' perils such as wildfire, flood, and drought becoming much more costly,” said Steve Bowen, director and meteorologist at Aons impact forecasting team.

“Scientific research indicates that climate change will continue to affect all types of weather phenomena and subsequently impact increasingly urbanised areas.” Last year was the second warmest year on record for land and ocean temperatures, though Aon said economic and insured losses were lower than in the previous two years.

There were 409 natural catastrophe events totalling $232 billion in losses in 2019, with $71 billion covered by insurance programs, the report said.

The Aon 2019 estimates topped those by global reinsurer Munich Re, which said last week overall natural catastrophe losses were $150 billion, and insured losses $52 billion.