Extreme weather events linked to climate change - floods, tropical cyclones, thunderstorms and storms - cause 200 billion dollars in losses worldwide every year, a figure that is destined to rise.
This is what emerges from a report by the reinsurer Swiss Re which elaborates the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and draws up a ranking of 36 countries identifying the most vulnerable ones.
The Philippines is at the top of the ranking, with damages that each year account for 3% of GDP (in total 12 billion dollars in 2022), while the United States is second in relation to GDP (with an annual loss of 0.4%), but first in absolute terms (with 97 billion dollars in damages).
In 2023, in particular, Italy was the European country most affected by thunderstorms and storms - as demonstrated by the flood in Emilia-Romagna and the hail in Northern Italy - with insured losses exceeding 3 billion dollars, the highest ever recorded in the Peninsula.
Between 2013 and 2022, Italy suffered damages amounting to 37 billion dollars, of which only 5 were insured and this means a "protection gap", an absence of protection equal to 87% of cases, explains Swiss Re. In the classification of losses in relation to GDP it is 17/yr, with an estimated loss of 0.11% (2.3 billion dollars).
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