Even if the rains alleviate the drought, they are often accompanied by heavy storms and intense rainfall causing significant damage in several regions.
This is the case in Southeast Asia where this year's monsoon was particularly severe, with heavy rains causing massive flooding in China, South Korea, Pakistan and India. The latter country deplores the death of 800 people and the disruption of water and electricity supplies.
Since June 2022, Pakistan has also been struggling with its worst rainy season since 1961. This event has killed nearly 1 500 people, disrupted the lives of 33 million Pakistanis and flooded a third of the country. The disaster, caused by record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in the mountains of northern Pakistan, is expected to cost the country 30 billion USD, according to the latest official estimates (1).
For the Asia-Pacific region, where 225 million people have been displaced during the 2011-2021 period, the economic losses associated with natural disasters [4] are estimated by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) at 780 billion USD, or 2.5% of the GDP of the entire region. These losses are likely to reach 1 400 billion USD by 2059, if the effects of climate change are not mitigated.
In Europe, the winter storm Eunice, which occurred in February 2022, swept across the north and northwest of the continent, causing the death of 13 people and significant property damage. Total losses amounted to 5.2 billion USD.
France, for its part, has experienced three episodes of exceptional events since the beginning of the year 2022 with hail, strong winds and floods.
With 6.6 billion USD of damage, the extreme rainfall and floods of February and March 2022 in Australia represented the most expensive natural disaster of the first half of 2022.
Significant weather-related damage was also recorded in the United States during the first six months of the year.
Globally, flood losses in the insurance market have increased significantly, going twofold in ten years to reach 100 billion USD between 2011 and 2021. For the year 2021 alone, the bill amounts to 20 billion USD. According to Swiss Re, the average coverage rate of this risk remains low both in advanced economies and in emerging countries, standing at 10% of the total losses linked to floods during the previous decade.
(1) Pakistani government estimates as of September 19, 2022.
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