Changing weather could put insurance firms out of business

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Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent due to climate change. Will the losses mean some property becomes uninsurable?

of the Port of London Authority are the cabbies of the Thames estuary. Based in Gravesend, 33km from the capital, they navigate some 10,000 ships into London terminals every year. Dispatched offshore on fast patrol boats, they use rope ladders to board ships as tall as buildings. Much like London’s black-cab drivers, who know its 25,000 streets by heart, they must recall every sandbank and wind farm at the mouth of the river.

Very costly disasters are becoming more frequent. Between 1980 and 2015 America saw an average of five events each year causing over $1bn in damage . Between 2016 and 2018 the yearly average was 15. In the 20th century, according toWorldwide, a climate-modelling firm, a hurricane on the scale of Harvey, America’s costliest ever, would have been regarded as a one-in-2,000-year event. By 2017, when Harvey blew in, that frequency was estimated at once in 300 years.

In the face of these threats, insurers are seeking to future-proof their businesses. Part of this is about financial resilience. Most general policies are renewed annually, meaning firms can raise premiums promptly . Since a spate of mega-disasters caught them off-guard in the 1990s they have fortified their capital reserves. According to McKinsey, the policyholder surplus available to pay claims in America’s property and casualty sector doubled in real terms over the past 20 years.

The global gap between total losses and insured losses is already wide and growing. The research arm of Swiss Re estimates that it more than doubled in real terms between 2000 and 2018, to $1.2trn. Half of last year’s losses from natural disasters were uninsured. Nine out of ten American homeowners have no flood insurance despite half of the population living near water, says Erwann Michel-Kerjan of McKinsey.

 

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'Cost the insurance industry'? So you mean they're SO INCOMPETENT that they MISCALCULATED their premiums and reinsurance coverage and LOST that amount? What's THAT got to do with 'climate change'? This from 'The Economist'? OH MY GOD!

Move away from the path of danger and build better homes with fresh upscaled standards. Spend more on infrastructure rather than on the stock market and banks.

Increase premium

SaleemulHuq i'm not an economist, but betting it's higher rates

It seems we are already doing fine. The death of people through natural disasters is CONSTANTLY falling! As much as you may hate fossile fuels, THEY liberate us from natural disasters!

What a lot of unsubstantiated tosh.

And sacking their seemingly incompetent actuaries who are supposed to understand and anticipate such eventualities.

By putting up the premiums. And not paying out. Obviously. Keep up. Your clients must be subsidized at all costs.

wow

quá khủng khiếp

In the nineties it was a smart decision. Insurers underestimated risks & premiums low. Cost of climatechange related disaster mangement in the meantime are far above the business of insurance companies and is part of the toxic cocktail which Most economic projections Not include

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sonamakapoor Saaliye kuthiye using some critical thinking. Don't be a typical bollywood dimwit.

Many people living in areas sensitive to fire hazards aren't consistently concerned nor behave accordingly.The poticians they vote,think short term about their continuity living on the tax payers and do little or nothing to prevent and or minimize th effects of fires,floods, etc.

I want to see the data supporting this statement

sonamakapoor Follow me follow 🔙

Thank the geoengineering jerks who are manipulating the weather.

We human are responsible for climate change, we are cutting off the same branch on which we are sitting, our next generation will never forgive us

desianwar

Most likely.

YES! OF COURSE! Any bank that offers 30-year mortages in the Miami will be out of business in 20 years.

😢😢😢

Reduce pollution

GLOBAL WARMING IS THE BIGGEST FRAUD IN HISTORY - Dan Pena

Ordinary people should stand against climate change more than the well to do.

Yes. Some property is already uninsurable. duh

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