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Climate change events increasing claims paid in Australia – Reinsurance News

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Climate change-induced natural catastrophe events have resulted in an increase in claims paid by Australian property insurers and consequently pushed their loss ratio up from 66.1% in 2019 to 84.6% in 2021, according to a new report from GlobalData.

australia-flag-mapThe loss ratio is expected to remain above the 80% levels over the next five years, impacting the profit margins of the insurers. 

The report, ‘Australia General Insurance: Key Trends and Opportunities to 2026’, estimates the paid claims of Australia’s property insurance segment to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 4.0% from AUD6.0 billion ($4.5 billion) in 2021 to AUD7.3 billion ($5.5 billion) in 2026. 

Ashish Raj, Insurance Analyst at GlobalData, said: “Due to various geographical reasons, Australia is prone to natural catastrophes, and the frequency of such events has increased recently. In the last two years, the country has suffered wildfires, floods, cyclones, and earthquakes which have resulted in a significant increase in property insurance claims.” 

“High Nat-Cat led losses along with the slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has compelled property insurers to increase premium significantly in the last couple of years. In fact, some buyers have been billed a renewal price increase of more than 300%.” 

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The floods that occurred in February 2022 heavily impacted New South Wales and Southeast Queensland, resulting in 118,000 property damage claims amounting to AUD1.8 billion ($1.3 billion), as of 10 March 2022. The floods in the two states in March 2021 led to 107,844 claims of worth AUD1 billion ($748.7million). 

The premium rate is expected to rise further over the next few years which can make property insurance more expensive for many policyholders. 

The expected increase is likely to have a negative impact on the property insurance segment, leading to underinsurance and even non-renewal of policies in the long-run. According to the Climate Council of Australia, 4% of properties will become uninsurable by 2030. 

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Ironman re-opens entries to 11 popular European events by increasing registration numbers – Triathlon Magazine Canada

Ironman re-opens entries to 11 popular European events by increasing registration numbers - Triathlon Magazine Canada

While many observers feel that there are already more than enough participants on most Ironman courses, the company says it has come up with ways to optimize and expand event space safely so that it can open up more spots for athletes to sign up for races that are already full.

Related: Over 4,000 athletes on a two-loop course with a short swim … how good is your pack riding?

After two years of race cancellations and deferments, entering many of the most popular Ironman events has been near impossible in 2022. Athletes who have been frustrated that they haven’t been able to sign up for some of the most popular events will have another chance, now, though as Ironman has opened up registration to 11 Ironman and 70.3 races, including the two Ironman European Championship events in Germany (Hamburg and Frankfurt) and UK.

“Due to the huge interest we received for these races originally, and taking into account a disappointing couple of years of race cancellations, we really wanted to find a way of giving athletes the race and experience they were dreaming of this year,” said Declan Byrne, Vice President of Operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa for The Ironman Group. “So, we have been working closely with the operations teams in each event country to make this happen while continuing to ensure a smooth and safe event experience. We are excited to be re-opening these races to the public and look forward to welcoming athletes from all over the world to some of our most sought-after European races.”

Below you’ll find the full list of races:

Date  Distance Race
22-May

 

IRONMAN 70.3

 

IRONMAN 70.3 Pays d’Aix-en-Provence

 

29-May

 

IRONMAN 70.3

 

IRONMAN 70.3 Kraichgau powered by KraichgauEnergie

 

05-June IRONMAN IRONMAN European Championship Hamburg
26-June IRONMAN Mainova IRONMAN European Championship Frankfurt
03-Jul IRONMAN IRONMAN UK
07-Aug

 

IRONMAN 70.3

 

IRONMAN 70.3 Swansea

 

13-Aug

 

IRONMAN 70.3

 

IRONMAN 70.3 Cork

 

14-Aug IRONMAN IRONAMAN Ireland
20-Aug IRONMAN IRONMAN Kalmar
21-Aug IRONMAN IRONMAN Copenhagen
11-Sep IRONMAN IRONMAN Wales

For those who can afford it, Ironman is also pushing it’s “additional range of services” so athletes can “customize” their race experience. Services include VIP parking, VIP Athlete Concierge support, hospitality for athletes and supporters, along with personal medal engraving.

You can find out more about the new registration options here.

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Increasing frequency of El Niño events expected by 2040

Increasing frequency of El Niño events expected by 2040
climate change
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Global weather fluctuations called El Niño events are likely to become more frequent by 2040, a new study shows.

El Niño—the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean—affects climate, ecosystems and societies worldwide.

The study examined four possible scenarios for future carbon emissions, and found increased risk of El Niño events in all four.

This means El Niño events and associated climate extremes are now more likely “regardless of any significant mitigation actions” to reduce emissions, the researchers warn.

Lead author Dr. Jun Ying, from the Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources in China and the University of Exeter, says that “we know from previous studies that, when measuring El Niño changes in terms of rainfall shifts in the eastern equatorial Pacific, models predict an increase in the frequency of events.”

“This study shows that those changes could happen after the next two decades.”

The study, published in Nature Climate Change, examines the “time of ” of changes in the tropical Pacific using state-of-the-art climate models.

The time of emergence is defined as when the signal of climate change emerges from the usual background noise of natural variability.

When looking at changes in El Niño rainfall patterns, the best estimate of the time of emergence of changes converges on 2040 in all of the four emissions scenarios considered.

Co-author Professor Mat Collins, from the University of Exeter and part of the Global Systems Institute, added that “what surprised us is that changes emerge regardless of the scenario we look at.”

“Because rainfall in the tropics is associated with the warmest sea surface temperatures (SSTs), it is the relative changes in SST that are more important than the absolute change.

“This leads us to the rather stark conclusion that these changes are essentially unavoidable.”


Climate change may be shifting and lengthening El Niño, causing rainy winters in California


More information:
Jun Ying, Emergence of climate change in the tropical Pacific, Nature Climate Change (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-022-01301-z. www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01301-z

Citation:
Increasing frequency of El Niño events expected by 2040 (2022, March 7)
retrieved 7 March 2022
from https://phys.org/news/2022-03-frequency-el-nio-events.html

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