Extreme weather events around the world, such as wildfires and storms, were the major driver behind $107bn in insured losses in 2025, according to industry data.
The Los Angeles wildfires alone caused record-high $40bn in insured losses from fires, says a new report from reinsurance company Swiss Re.
The report notes that, while overall insured losses in 2025 were lower than previous years, this was due to a “[luck] rather than a reduction in risk”, partly due to no major hurricanes hitting the US.
Insured losses refer to damages that are compensated for by insurance companies.
Despite lower losses in 2025 than the trend over recent years, they are still rising by an average of 5-7% each year since 1996, accounting for inflation, says Swiss Re.
The report itself does not explicitly discuss the role of human-caused climate change in the events driving these losses.
But the extensive ways in which climate change exacerbates and drives extreme weather are well established in scientific literature.
Other reports and media coverage also show how some parts of the world hit by frequent and intense extreme weather now face the possibility of becoming “uninsurable” due to unaffordable premiums or insurers pulling out of the market.
Below, Carbon Brief outlines three charts from the new Swiss Re report that highlight the role climate extremes had on insured economic losses in 2025.
- Most insured losses came from wildfires, storms and floods
- Wildfire losses soared to record-highs in 2025 due to the Los Angeles fires
- Losses are rising from thunderstorms – partly due to cost of replacing damaged rooftop solar panels
Most insured losses came from wildfires, storms and floods
The report finds that wildfires, floods and other “secondary perils” accounted for 92% of the $107bn in insured losses from “natural catastrophes” in 2025.
This is an all-time high for “secondary peril” losses and an increase from 56% over 2015-24 on average.
Secondary perils refer to more frequent, but typically less-damaging events, such as thunderstorms, floods, droughts, wildfires and snow. “Primary perils” are less frequent, but highly-damaging events, such as earthquakes and tropical cyclones.
Secondary events have been the fastest-growing category of insured losses from “natural” catastrophes over the past 55 years, according to the report.
The scientific field of “attribution” shows how global warming is making many of these events occur more frequently and/or with greater severity.
Thunderstorms, wildfires and floods are causing “rapidly growing insured losses with widely varying drivers worldwide”, says the Swiss Re report.
Although overall insured losses decreased to $107bn in 2025 from $137bn in 2024, the report forecasts that they could increase to $148bn in 2026, if the year aligns with long-term trends – or $320bn, if major events occur.
Insured losses only account for part of the wider economic losses from weather events, however, with less than half of losses being covered by insurance, the report says.
It adds that emerging economies have the largest gaps in insurance protection.
One contributing factor to the drop in insured losses between 2024 and 2025 was that no major hurricane made landfall in the US, where many people have insurance coverage for their homes or businesses.
Tropical cyclones accounted for 39% of these losses on average over 2015-24, compared to just 5% in 2025.
Hurricanes did cause destruction in other countries with lower insurance protection in 2025, however, such as Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica.
The US has the largest insurance market in the world, in part due to the predominance of high-value assets when compared to other countries. As such, a hurricane not making landfall in the US brings down the overall total insurance losses more significantly than it would in other countries.
Globally, “growth in exposure” contributes to more than 80% of the increase in weather-related insurance losses since 1970, says Swiss Re. This is the term used by the insurance industry to refer to increasing vulnerability to losses amid rising risks.
The report adds that better modelling and improved adaptation and mitigation measures are “crucial” to reduce losses and maintain insurability in vulnerable areas.
Dr Balz Grollimund, who leads the company’s catastrophe model development, told a press briefing:
“We need to continue reviewing our models, our risk views and updating them so they are not anchored in the past. We want them to be anchored in the present day [and] the next couple of years, so we can really anticipate the risk that we are facing.”
Despite the known link between increasing extreme weather and climate change, the new Swiss Re report only mentions climate change in footnotes or in reference to climate modelling.
In contrast, the company’s 2025 “natural catastrophes” report explicitly mentioned climate change compounding losses and heightening extreme weather events at least six times.
Wildfire losses soared to record-highs in 2025 due to the Los Angeles fires
The Palisades and Eaton wildfires that ripped through parts of Los Angeles in January 2025 resulted in almost $40bn of insured losses – “by far the largest global insured wildfire loss events to date”.
The majority of insured losses from wildfires almost always come from the US, as the chart above shows.
Globally, wildfires burned at least 3.7m square kilometres of land – an area larger than India – over 2024-25, Carbon Brief previously reported.
Extreme events occurred in South American and African rainforests during this time, but these would not rank in insurance industry figures due to low or non-existent insurance cover.
The report notes that “high hazard intersects with high-value assets” in many parts of California, which contributed to the record-high losses in the state.
Typically, extreme weather events in global north countries cost more for insurance companies due to higher levels of insurance protection.
Insurance company Mapfre estimated that around 17% of losses from “natural” disasters are covered by insurance in Asia and 19% in Latin America. This compares to almost 57% in North America.
The total economic losses from the Los Angeles fires were estimated to cost $250bn-275bn, said the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. Other impacts from the fires include job losses, health impacts from the smoke and damage to ecosystems, they noted.
The weather conditions that drove the Los Angeles fires were estimated to be 6% more intense and 35% more likely as a result of human-caused climate change, according to World Weather Attribution.
Losses from wildfires have risen “markedly” over the past decade, notes Swiss Re. Global insured losses from fires are increasing by around 12% each year.
The report adds that wildfires have accounted for an average of 10% of global annual “natural” catastrophe insured losses since 2015, compared to just 2% before 2015.
It also finds that the risk of wildfire losses in the US has been heightened by patterns of population growth. The increase in population in high-risk wildfire zones has been three times higher than the wider US since 1975, says the report.
Losses are rising from thunderstorms – partly due to cost of replacing damaged rooftop solar panels
Severe convective storms – also known as thunderstorms – resulted in $51bn of insured losses in 2025, Swiss Re finds, which is above the long-term trend.
These storms are severe events that can bring thunder, lightning, heavy rainfall, hailstones, strong winds and sudden temperature changes, according to the Royal Meteorological Society.
The rain from these storms tends to be very intense and localised in one area, the organisation notes, which can lead to “devastating” floods.
Climate attribution studies have shown that storms have often been made more severe or likely to occur due to climate change, as Carbon Brief’s interactive map reveals.
However, attribution of highly localised convective storms is “extremely difficult”, notes the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It adds that there is “limited evidence” that extreme rainfall associated with these storms has increased “in some cases” as a result of climate change.
This type of storm has caused up to €50bn ($58bn) in economic losses in the EU since 2000, with Germany, France and Ireland worst-affected, according to a recent report from property data company Cotality.
Globally, 2025 was the third-costliest year for these storms, says Swiss Re, after 2023 ($72bn) and 2024 ($54bn).
One notable contributing factor to this $51bn cost is repairing damage to rooftop solar panels after hailstorms, the report says.
In 2024, the Guardian reported that large hailstones threaten solar infrastructure, with hail in Italy and Germany up to 10cm in size – large enough to “dent a car, smash greenhouses and break a solar panel”.
Grollimund from Swiss Re said that major hail incidents with “tennis ball-sized” hailstones appear to be increasing.
The report says that hail events with stones larger than 5cm are increasing most intensely in Europe, especially in northern Italy. This is driven by “rising low-level moisture and increasing atmospheric instability”, it says.
Hailstones can crack the front glass on a solar panel and cause other damage that can reduce its lifespan and yield, according to a 2019 report from researchers at VU Amsterdam.
The post How wildfires and storms drove insurance losses in 2025 – in three charts appeared first on Carbon Brief.
How wildfires and storms drove insurance losses in 2025 – in three charts
New Zealand’s parliament has adopted a controversial new law blocking a whole avenue of climate litigation and shutting down its most advanced corporate lawsuit, which has been blamed by the government for shaking business confidence and investment.
The Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill, expected to take effect in the coming days after it is formally signed by the Governor-General, prevents all current and future civil claims for climate loss or harm under tort law.
Justice minister Paul Goldsmith said last week that the aim was to give businesses “certainty around their climate change obligations”, noting it would not alter the government’s responsibilities under the Climate Change Response Act 2002 nor business obligations under the Emissions Trading Scheme.
“Our response to climate change is best managed by the Government at a national level and not through piece-meal litigation in the courts,” he added in a statement.
Such litigation, he said, “risks developing a new regime that contradicts the framework Parliament has already enacted” to tackle climate change.
South Africa’s top court blocks Shell’s offshore oil exploration right
Constitutional Court rules that Shell and its partners failed to consult affected communities and did not properly consider environmental risksPeruvian farmer loses climate case against RWE – but paves way for future action
Experts say that despite dismissing the lawsuit, the ruling sets a precedent by confirming that climate science can establish legal liability for the damage caused by emissions
Goldsmith singled out a key domestic climate lawsuit brought by Northland iwi leader and activist Mike Smith against six big companies: dairy firms Fonterra and Dairy Holdings, energy firms Genesis Energy and Z Energy, New Zealand Steel and coal mining firm BT Mining. A seventh original defendant, Channel Infrastructure, was dropped after it permanently decommissioned its Marsden Point oil refinery.
Smith argued that these companies had caused him harm under public nuisance and negligence law, as well as a third breach of a duty to cease contributing to climate change that has yet to be tested domestically. He did not seek financial compensation, instead asking for the companies to immediately stop emitting or contributing to net greenhouse gas emissions.
In one of the most advanced corporate climate accountability lawsuits in the world, a trial had been scheduled for April 2027 after the Supreme Court unanimously allowed the case to continue.
Corporate lobbying in the shadows
Smith described the passing of the bill as “deeply concerning”, particularly as it coincided with the Supreme Court hearing another of his climate lawsuits. In that case, Smith v Attorney-General, he argues that the government’s response to climate change and its impacts on Māori communities in particular breaches rights to life and culture.
“That timing raises profound questions about the separation of powers and the rule of law,” said Smith. “Whatever one’s view of the merits of these cases, it is deeply troubling when parliament intervenes to remove a legal pathway while the courts are actively considering fundamental questions about climate responsibility, rights and the crown’s obligations.”
The bill – which says that no person (including the government) can be found liable in tort for emissions-related climate change effects – followed major lobbying efforts by the companies defending themselves in Smith’s lawsuit. They outlined a proposed legal amendment in a briefing note to the government in 2024.
The centre-right government has been fiercely criticised over its lack of transparency in relation to this lobbying activity. The national ombudsman recently found that the Prime Minister’s Office effectively withheld information requested by the Environmental Law Initiative about meetings, discussions and conversations regarding Smith’s case.
Green groups fail to stop bill
The bill sparked huge concern among environmental campaigners in New Zealand and elsewhere. Greenpeace Aotearoa called it a “shocking abuse of executive power” and the vast majority of submissions to a parliamentary inquiry said it should be rejected.
But in the end, it was adopted with little resistance, moving relatively smoothly through parliament, passing its third reading by 67 votes to 53. Sam Bookman, climate law lecturer at Melbourne Law School, told Climate Home News he was not surprised by this, given that the coalition government has a secure majority.
A complaint has been made to the UN special rapporteur on climate change and human rights by Smith, the National Iwi Chairs Forum Pou Tikanga and youth coalition Climate Clinic Aotearoa over what they see as the government’s heavy-handed approach. Smith is also challenging the new law in yet another lawsuit.
“Pathetic”: New Zealand plans to barely cut emissions between 2030 and 2035
Bookman thinks it “very unlikely” that such a challenge will succeed, noting that New Zealand’s constitution is firmly anchored in parliamentary sovereignty.
But the expert in climate law does not see the bill as the end of legal action in the country, noting that New Zealand has a “sophisticated climate litigation landscape with a growing number of specialist and experienced lawyers and NGOs”.
The country is also approaching its next general election in November, and some opposition parties have pledged to restore access to the courts if elected.
Amanda Larsson, global project lead on agriculture for Greenpeace International, said: “This law deserves to be tested, and I strongly encourage the international climate litigation community to unite and help defend New Zealanders’ fundamental right to hold polluters accountable before this becomes a global blueprint.”
Copycat legislation on the rise
New Zealand’s move is part of a small but growing legislative effort to shut down climate litigation around the world.
In the US, Republican politicians introduced legislation in the House and Senate in April that would shield fossil fuel firms from climate liability lawsuits. Similar laws have already been passed at state level in Tennessee, Utah, Iowa and Louisiana.
The German state of Bavaria has put forward a similar proposal to the Federal Council, aiming to block private climate claims as well as the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments imposing such liability. There are also proposals to limit available remedies and actions in the Netherlands and Belgium.
UN General Assembly backs “climate obligations” set by world’s top court
Bookman said he expects more efforts to counter climate damages litigation and advised plaintiffs to think about how to respond, including drawing on broader support in opposing them.
“Even though it’s very hard for plaintiffs to win these types of cases, companies are very eager to avoid the expense, embarrassment and political accountability that come even with unsuccessful lawsuits,” he said.
The post New Zealand moves to protect business with law curtailing climate litigation appeared first on Climate Home News.
New Zealand moves to protect business with law curtailing climate litigation
Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara is the Executive Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS), an Indonesia-based economic think tank. Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat is the Director of the China-Indonesia desk at CELIOS.
Indonesia produces around 60% of the world’s nickel, a metal used to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) – more than any other country in the world. But in 2026, the government sharply reduced how much of its nickel can be extracted from the ground.
Production quotas were reduced by around 40% this year compared to 2025. Weda Bay, the largest nickel mine on Earth, had its allowance cut by more than 70% and exhausted its full-year quota by the end of May, halting mining entirely; it cannot resume large-scale extraction until next year unless regulators grant an extension.
The policy has sparked a vivid debate in Indonesian policy circles: how can the country shift its strategy from a decade of mining vast quantities of cheap nickel to producing a high-value and low-carbon material that the rest of the world wants for EV batteries.
The cuts aren’t a silver bullet to clean up Indonesia’s nickel industry, whose smelters are powered by coal – the most polluting fossil fuels. But alongside stricter enforcement of environmental rules, it is one side of efforts to produce more sustainable nickel for a premium.
Restricting Indonesia’s nickel output
Production quotas were introduced to stop the collapse of nickel prices because of oversupply in the market. Prices had fallen more than 40% in 2023 alone and kept sliding as Indonesian supply kept growing, hitting a four-year low of around $13,900 a ton in late 2025.
Critics called the recent tightening of production quotas proof that Indonesia’s nickel strategy has failed, arguing that the industry shouldn’t need to throttle its own output to survive. But when assessed against what the policy was supposed to do – push up nickel prices – it has worked. Prices jumped to $20,000 a ton in May, the highest since 2024.
-
Big banks’ lending to coal backers undermines Indonesia’s green plans
Foreign banks involved in Indonesia’s $20-billion Just Energy Transition Partnership have also funded companies working on coal power expansion, a TBIJ and Climate Home News investigation reveals -
Southeast Asia’s fragile grids threaten billions in clean energy investment
Renewables developers need reliable electricity infrastructure and stable policies to help the region meet climate goals and surging demand for power
Chinese industry groups representing companies that have invested billions to mine and refine the country’s nickel were furious, warning Indonesia’s president Prabowo Subianto that the cuts put $50 billion worth of investment at risk. But much of that Chinese capital is sunk into smelters and processing plants built specifically to run on Indonesian ore, and cannot simply be moved elsewhere. That gives Jakarta more room to hold its ground than the warning suggests.
Stronger environmental enforcement
Since the start of the year, Indonesia’s forestry task force has seized more than four million hectares of land from mines and plantations operating illegally in protected forests, collecting over two trillion rupiah ($113 million) in fines.
This included 148 hectares seized from Weda Bay for lacking a forestry permit. The share of nickel produced from illegal small-scale mining also fell from about a quarter in 2022 to roughly 10% by 2024.
The crackdown responds to serious environmental damages in the nickel industry. On Obi Island, a waste pond collapsed after heavy rain in June 2025, flooding three villages and killing a resident. Internal company tests found chromium-6 – a carcinogen – in the water, in quantities far above the legal limit. The footprint of another mine near Raja Ampat, which is home to some of the world’s richest coral reefs, grew 60-fold in just eight years.
The market is responding to early cleanup efforts. Low-carbon nickel now sells for a real premium, roughly $18,800 to $19,300 a ton compared with $17,900 to $18,300 otherwise, as carmakers seek to source cleaner materials to comply with the European Union’s new emissions rules for imports.
In turn, this is incentivising the industry to do more to green its operations. Vale Indonesia’s smelter in South Sulawesi now runs almost entirely on hydropower, for example.
None of this addresses coal use, however. Major Indonesian nickel producers still emitted an estimated 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2023. Indonesia may be cracking down on illegal mining and rewarding cleaner producers but it is still running its mines on the dirtiest fuel available.
Unequal benefits
For Indonesia to truly benefit from producing cleaner and high-value nickel, it needs to reap the economic benefits too. Although the industry has boosted the country’s economic growth, the reality on the ground tells a different story.
Konawe in Southeast Sulawesi is home to a major smelting complex. Growth in the district jumped from 6% to 22% between 2015 and 2023, driven almost entirely by the nickel industry, according to a study by the Lowy Institute study. At the same time, poverty levels increased slightly and unemployment remained unchanged.
-
Nickel mining for electric vehicles is destroying lives in Indonesia
Indonesia’s abundant nickel reserves are crucial for a low carbon world. But extracting them is ruining local peoples’ lives and causing rampant deforestation -
Indonesia turns traditional Indigenous land into nickel industrial zone
Indonesia supplies the EV industry with critical battery materials but the sector’s rapid expansion is infringing the rights of Indigenous peoples -
Indonesia’s failing Just Energy Transition Partnership is a cautionary tale
The government has abandoned its plan to shut down a major coal plant, which was a key part of the deal, raising doubts about the donor-backed approach
In Halmahera, another epicentre of the nickel industry, spending by the poorest fifth grew just 5% between 2019 and 2022, compared with 28% for the wealthiest fifth, according to a separate study.
Part of the reason for this inequality is the system for transferring mining royalties to district authorities where the mines are located. In theory, they are entitled to the largest share. But in practice, payments are delayed, companies routinely dispute what they owe and royalties are pooled and distributed across a larger area.
The Natural Resource Governance Institute has found that decentralisation handed local governments power to approve new mines faster than they could build their capacity to manage them. Higher output raises national income on paper, but local governments remain constrained by fiscal rules and infrastructure costs that scale with mining.
None of this makes the 2026 quota cuts a mistake. Indonesia has every right to defend its pricing power over a resource it controls. But limiting extraction isn’t going to fix underlying issues around environmental enforcement and revenue-sharing. That requires rules that are consistently enforced, royalties that reach communities living by the mines, and a plan to wean smelters off coal.
The post Indonesia’s nickel production cuts are not enough to create a sustainable industry appeared first on Climate Home News.
Indonesia’s nickel production cuts are not enough to create a sustainable industry
Climate Change
Risk of “catastrophic” oil spill reaching Kimberley coast found in Woodside’s Scott Reef gas drilling plans
SYDNEY, Monday 24 August 2026 – New analysis of Woodside modelling released by Greenpeace Australia Pacific and Environs Kimberley has revealed the oil and gas corporation’s plans to drill at Scott Reef could cause an oil spill up to 30 times bigger than the 2009 Montara disaster, impacting the Kimberley coastline and reaching as far as Indonesia.
The new analysis details the “catastrophic” oil spill risk put to environmental regulators for approval by Woodside in its Browse to North West Shelf Project (Browse) plans, the worst-case scenario being a blowout directly below Scott Reef, polluting whale migratory pathways and covering isolated turtle nesting ground with oil condensate.
An FOI application (F348) revealed the federal environment department (DCCEEW) asked offshore oil and gas regulator NOPSEMA to look into the oil spill risk in 2025. NOPSEMA’s response to the application refused access to its report, and one document shows DCCEEW sought further advice this year.
Greenpeace and Environs Kimberley are calling on the Federal Government to publicly release the NOPSEMA report given the risk of an uncontrolled release of oil condensate from directly below Scott Reef.
Hannah Schuch, Senior Campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “Woodside is aware that drilling at Scott Reef risks a massive oil spill that would have severe, far-reaching consequences. It appears environmental regulators are aware too.
“The state and federal governments need to take this risk from Woodside’s drilling plans seriously, as they could end up allowing the worst oil spill in Australian history.
“The pygmy blue whales that migrate up and down the WA coast with their newborns each year could be swimming and feeding in toxic, oil-slicked water. Woodside’s proposal to drill at Scott Reef is an environmental disaster waiting to happen, and the WA and federal governments have one surefire way to prevent catastrophe — reject Browse.”
Martin Prichard, Executive Director at Environs Kimberley, said: “A catastrophic oil spill by Woodside would be disastrous not just for marine life in the area but also for the Kimberley’s $500 million tourism industry.
“The state and federal governments will see five marine parks on the Kimberley coast included in the risk area of a catastrophic Woodside oil spill.
“The Montara oil spill was disastrous for West Timor with the toxic oil destroying seaweed farmers’ livelihoods. The Kimberley dodged a bullet with Montara, we were lucky the spill didn’t head our way. Myself and a crew flew over the Montara oil spill and followed it as far as we could. It was like a scene from a disaster movie.”
After the WA Environmental Protection Authority deemed Browse “unacceptable” due, in part, to oil spill risk, Woodside submitted a mitigation plan based on technology that has never been used “in anger”, a weakness stated in an independent expert review of the plan.
Professor Richard Steiner, independent oil spill expert, said: “A large offshore spill is impossible to effectively contain or recover. Historically, only 2-6% of total spill volume is recovered and the ecological injury from the release of toxic hydrocarbons in the sea can be severe, extensive, and long-term.
“Here in Alaska, government research concludes that several marine populations injured by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, including whales, fish, and seabirds, are still not recovering today, 37 years later. We should expect similar long-term ecological impacts in Western Australia if there were to be a major oil spill. The only sure way to avoid the risk of a catastrophic marine oil spill is to not develop oil and gas projects in marine environments.”
-ENDS-
Media contact
Emma Sangalli on emma.sangalli@greenpeace.org or 0431 513 465
-
Climate Change1 year ago
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Greenhouse Gases1 year ago
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Greenhouse Gases2 years ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Climate Change2 years ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Climate Change2 years ago
Bill Discounting Climate Change in Florida’s Energy Policy Awaits DeSantis’ Approval
-
Renewable Energy10 months agoSending Progressive Philanthropist George Soros to Prison?
-
Greenhouse Gases1 year ago
嘉宾来稿：探究火山喷发如何影响气候预测
-
Carbon Footprint2 years agoUS SEC’s Climate Disclosure Rules Spur Renewed Interest in Carbon Credits