Verisk Raises Global Insured Catastrophe Loss Estimate to $171 Billion

A new Capgemini Research Institute report finds that 68% of executives now say their organization actively prioritizes climate adaptation, up from 56% in 2025, yet only 15% have fully quantified the financial impact of climate-related disruptions. The fifth edition of A World in Balance: The resilience reset, based on a survey of 2,100 executives at 701 organizations with more than $1 billion in annual revenue across 13 countries, also shows the share of organizations falling behind on net zero goals rising to 11% in 2026 from 1% in 2025, with 29% saying they have postponed their net zero objectives, compared with just 8% last year. Nearly nine in 10 organizations report climate-related supply-chain disruptions, and more than seven in 10 executives say securing access to critical resources such as energy, water and materials now influences sustainability decisions more than emissions-reduction targets. Sustainability spending reached 1.04% of revenue last year, above the 0.8% initially allocated, and 83% of organizations plan to increase climate adaptation spending over the next 12 to 18 months. Cyril Garcia, Global head of Sustainability services and Corporate Responsibility at Capgemini, said climate disruptions have become the new normal and that leaders can no longer defer climate action.

Today's cabinet meeting (Sept 15) was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn on behalf of Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who is on a trip to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The Interior Ministry is seeking approval for a total budget framework of 15 billion baht to buy natural disaster insurance under the national disaster insurance programme, and is proposing three types of policy covering floods, windstorms and earthquakes, for 30 million households, with a one-year coverage period from 1 October 2026 to 1 October 2027, to ease the burden of risk on the state, which spends tens of billions of baht a year on relief for disaster victims. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives is seeking approval for a project to improve the irrigation system in the lower Chao Phraya basin and the lower eastern side, with a budget of about 95 billion baht, using loans from the Asian Development Bank, or ADB, together with the national budget. The Transport Ministry, for its part, is proposing to cancel the item for construction of the ministry's new headquarters building, which was tied to the budgets for 2026 to 2028, effectively delaying the construction plan. Attention is also on proposals to appoint and transfer senior officials at several ministries to fill positions left vacant by retirements on 30 September this year.

Verisk's catastrophe modelling unit has released its 2026 Global Modelled Catastrophe Losses Report, calculating that the insurance industry should be prepared to withstand $171 billion in insured catastrophe losses on average in a given year, up $19 billion from a year ago and the highest estimate Verisk has reported to date. The benchmark rose even after a year with no U.S. hurricane landfalls for the first time in a decade, reflecting continued growth in property values and insured values worldwide. Severe thunderstorm accounts for 40 percent of modelled insured catastrophe risk, more than any other peril, ahead of tropical cyclone at 27 percent, earthquake at 10 percent, winter storm at 9 percent, flood at 7 percent, and wildfire at 6 percent. At the 100-year return period, modelled aggregate insured losses reach $477 billion, and at the 250-year return period, they reach $606 billion. The report also highlights a persistent protection gap, noting that globally only about 38 percent of economic losses from natural catastrophes are insured, while in Europe, only about $24 billion of the region's $110 billion in expected annual economic catastrophe losses is insured, or 22 percent.