Climate shift losses down, but still high

Natural disaster losses worldwide dropped sharply to $224 billion (about R3.7 trillion) in 2025, reinsurer Munich Re said yesterday, but warned of a still “alarming” picture of extreme weather events likely driven by climate change.

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The figure was down nearly 40% from a year earlier, in part because no hurricane struck the US mainland for the first time in several years.

Nevertheless, “the big picture was alarming with regard to floods, severe storms and wildfires in 2025”, said Munich Re, a Germany-based provider of insurance for the insurance industry.

The costliest disaster of the year came in the form of Los Angeles wildfires in January, with total losses of $53 billion and insured losses of $40 billion, Munich Re said in its annual disaster report.

It was striking how many extreme events were likely influenced by climate change in 2025 and it was just chance that the world was spared potentially higher losses, the group said.