The latest edition of WTW’s Natural Catastrophe Review is a biannual publication that brings insights from our experts, including WTW’s Research Network, to examine recent natural disasters, lessons learned and emerging trends.
Natural catastrophes continued to put a strain on global insurance markets. Global insured losses surpassed USD 140 billion in 2024, marking the fifth consecutive year insured damages exceeded USD 100 billion. Total economic damages surpassed USD 350 billion, once again highlighting the inadequacy in resilience to climate-related risks. Adding to this pressure, wildfires in Los Angeles have already driven insurance loss estimates in the region of USD 30-USD 40 billion in the first few weeks of 2025.
The key takeaways include:
Unprecedented natural catastrophes: Major events in 2024 included Spain's costliest natural catastrophe (the Valencia floods causing EUR 3.7 billion in claims), the highest insurance claims on record for natural catastrophes in Canada (USD 5.6 billion), hurricanes Helene and Milton, which made landfall in Florida (combined USD 45 billion) and the deadliest Western Pacific typhoon season since 2013.
Climate-driven risks: 2024 became the first year on record to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, a significant milestone. The mounting financial impact of natural catastrophes continues to be driven by the expansion in both the number and value of assets at risk. However, climate change is also playing an increasingly prominent role, with several events in 2024 being linked to human-caused warming, including hurricanes Helene and Milton, the South American drought, and Storm Boris, which impacted Europe.
Call to action on resilience: The review emphasizes the need for enhanced risk modeling, innovative insurance solutions and proactive adaptation and the need for mitigating measures to address the growing impacts of climate change on economies and societies.
“Our long-standing collaboration with scientists gives us better insights into growing exposure to perils, especially perils that are changing rapidly. It’s easy to be lured by the increased sophistication of risk models: a deeper understanding of data and science are critical to identify real improvements and remaining limitations of risk models, to make them more useful to decision-makers”, commented Hélène Galy, Head of WTW Research Network.
“Credible data and risk models can help you make informed choices about trade-offs: making investments to become more resilient, buying more insurance protection, or accepting the risk. Beware of becoming overly committed to one approach. Simply having lots of data or a single modelling approach may not give the robust risk perspectives you need. Seeking expert input and a more nuanced modelling approach, where you challenge your core modelling approach (“defender”) with a different approach (“challenger”) will provide alternative perspectives. Then you will navigate an increasingly volatile natural hazard environment much more effectively”, said Peter Carter, Head of Climate Practice, WTW.
This edition delves into the physical, vulnerability and socioeconomic factors that contributed to the largest natural catastrophes in the second half of 2024 and examines the overarching themes of the year. Offering a smarter way to risk, this report goes beyond the numbers to provide new perspectives to help with natural catastrophe risk management and resilience across multiple sectors.
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