Yanis Darras 5:34 p.m., January 26, 2023

Floods, record drought, uncontrollable fires... 2022 will have been a dark year for insurance.

In France alone, the climate bill amounts to nearly 10 billion euros.

Unheard of since 1999, announces the president of France Assureurs, Florence Lustman.

And with climate change, the next 30 years should break all records, she believes.

INTERVIEW

Frost, episodes of extreme heat, drought, hail, megafires... The climatic elements were unleashed in 2022. Faced with the multiplication of extreme phenomena, the French have become aware of the acceleration of climate change, including in the Hexagon, relatively spared until then. 

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And with such weather events, the insurance bill has skyrocketed.

"2022 is truly the annus horribilis", recognizes at the microphone of Europe 1 the president of France Assureurs, Florence Lustman.

Over the past year, the climate bill has amounted to almost 10 billion euros.

An impressive figure which is close to that of 1999, a year marked by the storms Lothar and Martin, which caused the bill to soar to nearly 15 billion euros. 

New records in the years to come

"To give some comparative figures, in the 1980s for example, these natural events cost an average of one billion euros per year. And over the last five years preceding 2022, we had already gone to an average cost of 3, 5 billion euros per year", explains the president of France Assureurs. 

But if the addition explodes in 2022, it is because this year will have been exceptional on all fronts.

“The French know it well, they have experienced all these hailstorms which have been very intense with hailstones which now reach the size of a tennis ball and no longer a ping-pong ball. also tornadoes and floods. And at the same time, 2022 was an equally exceptional year on the drought front", continues Florence Lustman. 

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And the next few years should not be easy for insurance, she warns.

"With the projections we have made, we think that over the next 30 years, cumulatively, the climate cost will double compared to what we have spent over the last 30 years." 

"Yes, climate risk is still insurable"

“Thus, we expect the climate bill to amount to nearly 140 billion euros for France alone, over the next 30 years,” she announces.

"But it's in line with what we see, with the intensification of the phenomena and an increase in their frequency."

But Florence Lustman wants to reassure policyholders: "Yes, climate risk is still insurable, in particular because we are lucky in France to have this natural disaster regime which is a universal, solidarity regime, which means that we can pool this risk across all the people who are insured for damages. (...) So, compared to other countries, in any case, we are rather well protected, but we have to consolidate the system. It is absolutely necessary to keep the principle because it is very protective for our fellow citizens", she concludes.