Natural disasters caused more losses in 2021 than in the previous two years, with a higher than usual share due to the United States, German reinsurance giant Munich Re explained on Monday.
Globally, the bill was $ 280 billion in damage last year, compared to $ 210 billion in 2020 and $ 166 billion in 2019, the Bavarian group calculated in an annual study.
Of this total, the insured amount amounted to $ 120 billion, the most expensive balance sheet in history after 2017 ($ 146 billion), according to Munich Re.
The uninsured share of natural claims in 2021 was 57%, down 3 points over one year.
The year was marked by a high proportion of claims in the United States, with a cost of 145 billion dollars, or more than half of the total.
Hurricane Ida, which struck in late August in southern New Orleans, New Jersey and the New York area, alone caused $ 65 billion in damage.
This report also includes the winter storm Uri which paralyzed the south of the country in February and a series of tornadoes in early December with winds of up to 310 km / h, especially in Kentucky (south).
These disasters killed some 10,000 people around the world last year.
In Europe, devastating bad weather in July destroyed hundreds of homes, bridges and roads and left 220 people dead, especially in western Germany.
The damage from these sudden and very heavy floods is estimated at 46 billion euros (54 billion dollars), of which 11 billion euros were insured.
The eruption of Cumbre Vieja on the Spanish island of La Palma between September and December caused 3,000 houses to be buried under floods of lava and ash. Of the approximately 850 million euros (US $ 1 billion) of estimated damage, only a small proportion is likely to be insured.
In Asia, where the toll comes to 50 billion dollars in damage, the floods in China in the province of Henan (center) in particular weighed for about 17 billion dollars, of which about a tenth were insured.
“Companies urgently need to adapt to increasing weather risks and make climate protection a priority,” concludes Torsten Jeworrek, member of the Munich Re board of directors.
About 200 countries adopted in November the “Glasgow Pact”, a compromise on the climate which does not however ensure the respect of the objectives of the Paris agreement of 2015 (to limit the warming “well below” of 2 ° C and if possible at 1.5 ° C).
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