Tausi Insider

Cars and debris from washed away homes line a canal in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., on Oct. 5, 2022. Rebecca Blackwell/The Associated Press Natural disasters, many driven by climate change, caused global economic losses of US$313-billion in 2022, insurance broker Aon estimated on Wednesday, of which less than half was insured. Losses from natural catastrophes covered by the insurance sector amounted to US$132-billion, 57 per cent above the 21st-century average, it added, leaving a global “protection gap’” of 58 per cent. Yet while the number of catastrophic events such as floods and hurricanes rose – at least 421 individual events compared with an average of 396 since 2000 – Aon said the protection gap was one of the lowest on record. “It was relatively low due to the fact that many of the costliest disasters occurred in countries with mature insurance markets such as U.S. or Europe, whereas losses in less-covered regions such as Asia were well below average,” Michal Lorinc, head of catas...