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In a year set to be declared the hottest on record, natural disasters caused $310 billion in economic losses globally in 2024, as climate change increasingly takes its toll.
The estimated economic losses from natural disasters were 6% higher than in 2023, which currently stands as the hottest year ever, the Zurich-based reinsurance giant said in a statement.
Of the total, insured losses swelled by 17% year-on-year to $135 billion, with the devastating hurricanes Helene and Milton in the United States and intense flooding in Europe pushing up the costs, it said.
It marks the fifth consecutive year that insured losses have topped $100 billion, the Swiss company said.
“Much of this increasing loss burden results from value concentration in urban areas, economic growth, and increasing rebuilding costs,” Balz Grollimund, Swiss Re’s head of catastrophe and perils, said in the statement.
Swiss Re stressed the impact of climate change, with this year on course to be declared the hottest since records began.
Just this week, China, the world’s leading emitter of the greenhouse gases scientists say are driving climate change, reported its warmest autumn ever recorded.
Global warming can make extreme weather more frequent and intense, not only through high temperatures but also the knock-on effect of extra heat in the atmosphere and the seas.
“By favouring the conditions leading to many of this year’s catastrophes, climate change is also playing an increasing role,” Grollimund said.
The European Union’s climate monitor Copernicus said last month that 2024 would likely be more than 1.55 degrees Celsius (2.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1850-1900 average — the period before the industrial-scale burning of fossil fuels.
