The 398 natural disasters globally in 2023 caused economic losses of $380 billion (compared to $355 billion in 2022), 22% higher than the 21st century average, while global insurance losses were 31% higher than the 21st century average. century, exceeding 100 billion for the fourth consecutive year.
With only $118 billion in coverage (151 billion in 2022), the "protection gap" stood at 69% (58% in 2022), highlighting the urgency of expanding insurance capacity.
This is what emerges from the annual Climate and CatastropheInsight report by Aon, a consultant for the management of risks and insurance programmes, according to which Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece and New Zealand have recorded the highest insured losses ever, at a national level, due to meteorological events and climate.
With the floods in Emilia-Romagna in May, Italy "recorded the sixth catastrophic event worldwide with economic losses of 9.8 billion dollars and insured losses of 600 million dollars, highlighting an important protection gap. In July, repeated thunderstorms in Northern Italy caused heavy hailstorms, the cost of which to the insurance market reached 3.7 billion," the report said.
Finally, the flood in Tuscany between the end of October and the beginning of November generated economic losses of around 2 billion euros.
Also in this case a notable insurance protection gap was observed, with losses for the insurance market in the order of 500 million euros.
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