Kathmandu. The natural disasters caused by climate change have become a matter of concern for insurance companies around the world in recent times.
According to Reinsurance Gallagher Rica, insurance companies will suffer $84 billion in damage in the first six months of 2025 (January-June) due to disasters such as fires, floods, landslides, storms and earthquakes. That’s more than the damage in the first half of 2011.
Over the full period of 2025, insurance losses are expected to exceed $100 billion.
In the first half of this year, $40 billion of the estimated insurance loss of $84 billion has come from wildfires in the United States. This is the biggest wildfire in Southern California earlier this year in January. The fires in Los Angeles, California, are the largest in American history. Thousands of physical structures were destroyed and millions of people were rendered homeless.
State Firm General, California’s largest insurer, said it had 8,700 insurance claims for damage caused by the fires. The company has already provided $1 billion in compensation to customers.
Following the incident, the company urged local authorities to increase home insurance charges by an average of 22 percent. California homeowners are likely to be hit harder.
In the first half of 2025, non-US insurers alone lost $10 billion. This is the highest in the first six months of 2006.
The april earthquake caused heavy damage in Myanmar and Thailand. Insurance companies are estimated to have paid up to $1 billion in damages.
