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
Aiqun Yu, Christine Shearer and Joe Hittinger work at Global Energy Monitor, a US-based organisation that seeks to provide the worldwide energy transition with transparent data and analysis.
With global oil and gas prices soaring at the start of the Iran war, China quietly broke ground on three major coal-to-gas and coal-to-chemical projects worth roughly $10 billion in two regions with abundant coal resources.
But as a Chinese saying goes, “three feet of ice does not form in a single day”. China’s push to use coal as a substitute for imported oil and gas has been gathering momentum since the Russia-Ukraine war began in 2022, prompting a recalibration of energy security priorities in Beijing and beyond.
The policy raises new concerns, threatening China’s climate goals and growing reputation as a global clean energy leader by creating renewed demand for coal.
A new expansion wave
Over the past three years, China has entered a new cycle of investment in so-called “modern coal chemicals”, differentiated from conventional coal chemicals. Four pathways – coal-to-gas, coal-to-liquids, coal-to-olefins, and coal-to-ethylene glycol – account for the bulk of new modern coal-chemical capacity under development.
-
After another battery startup bankruptcy, can Europe ever cut reliance on China?
Norway’s Morrow Batteries set out to challenge Chinese producers, but a cash crunch forced it to file for bankruptcy in a setback for European ambitions for clean energy sovereignty -
China’s emissions fall but growing coal-to-chemicals sector raises concern
The fast-rising use of coal in the production of synthetic fuels and plastics could put China’s climate targets at risk despite record additions of renewables, new analysis shows -
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
According to Global Energy Monitor data, proposed and under-construction coal-to-gas capacity is approaching three times current operating capacity. Together, 34 projects under active consideration represent more than 1 trillion yuan ($150 billion) in planned investment and could add roughly 300 million tonnes of annual coal demand if completed, equivalent to South Africa’s entire coal mining capacity.
Most projects are in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi and Ningxia, regions with plentiful coal resources and relatively low mining costs. Xinjiang has emerged as the epicentre of the new boom, accounting for more than half of all proposed modern coal chemical projects.
Why the world abandoned coal chemicals
Coal chemicals are often presented as an emerging industry, but the technologies themselves are more than a century old.
Earlier “conventional” coal chemistry was a byproduct of coking, a process run primarily for iron and steel making. “Modern” coal chemistry instead uses gasification to convert coal into synthesis gas, a versatile building block for fuels, plastics, fertilisers and other chemicals that would traditionally be made from oil or gas.
These modern processes were developed in the early 20th century and expanded during periods of wartime fuel shortages. For example, Germany relied heavily on synthetic fuels during the Second World War while South Africa developed similar technologies in the apartheid era to reduce vulnerability to international sanctions.
Once cheap oil and gas became widely available, however, most countries moved away from coal chemicals, which required large amounts of energy, water and capital investment, and generally produced more pollution and carbon emissions than the conventional alternatives.
Today, only a handful of commercial coal gasification facilities operate outside China.
China has already tested this theory once
The current expansion is not China’s first attempt to build a major coal chemical industry.
A previous boom emerged during the 2010s, driven by many of the same arguments: high oil prices, concerns over energy security and expectations that technological improvements would unlock a new era of coal-based industrial growth.
Brazil jostles for rare earths share as US-China rivalry heats up
The outcome was far from successful. Dozens of projects were proposed, but many were delayed, suspended or scrapped before completion, and there were difficulties among those that did get off the ground.
Three of China’s four operating coal-to-gas projects reportedly spent much of the past decade operating at a loss, and several large coal chemical facilities generated only marginal returns despite government support.
Policy support is driving the revival
Backers say technological improvements have made the industry more competitive than it was a decade ago.
Yet coal chemical projects remain highly dependent on oil and gas prices. When international prices rise, coal-derived products can appear competitive. When prices fall, the economics often deteriorate rapidly.
More than changes in technology, government policy has played a pivotal role in the sector’s revival.
Following power shortages in 2021 and the energy market disruptions that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, energy security became a national priority. Coal production expanded, particularly in western China, boosted by government support.
China’s solar exports reach “gigantic” record in March as energy crisis bites
A key policy change in 2022 exempted coal used as industrial feedstock from certain energy consumption controls, easing regulatory pressure on coal chemical projects.
The impact of such measures highlights the degree to which coal chemicals depend on expansive and favourable policy treatment to remain viable.
At the same time, the current expansion is creating new demand for an industry confronting structural decline as China races to renewables in electricity generation.
The cost to China’s climate leadership
Converting coal into fuels and petrochemical products also releases substantially more carbon dioxide than conventional oil- and gas-based alternatives, which themselves are a major source of emissions.
Proponents argue that coupling production with green hydrogen and carbon capture could resolve the emissions problem, but the arithmetic doesn’t support this.
Sinopec’s flagship Dalu coal-to-olefins plant, paired with a 10,000 tonne-per-year green hydrogen demonstration, displaces less than 2% of the plant’s annual coal use. Replicating this across the proposed buildout would consume enormous quantities of clean energy just to partially decarbonise an inherently dirty process.
China could instead leverage that same industrial capacity and policy support to lead the development of cleaner chemical pathways, such as green ammonia for fertiliser, bio-based and CO2-derived feedstocks for plastics, and e-fuels or biofuels where liquid fuels are still needed.
Rather than locking in another generation of coal-dependent infrastructure, China should learn from the lessons of the past and seek a cleaner and more viable industrial future.
The post China’s coal-chemicals boom risks repeating the mistakes of the past appeared first on Climate Home News.
China’s coal-chemicals boom risks repeating the mistakes of the past
Welcome to the Project Cosmos homepage.
The project was launched by Carbon Brief in June 2026 following an 18-month research and development effort.
The aim: to build the world’s largest database of climate change research.
Containing more than 1.8 million unique publications linked by 40 million citation relationships, the Cosmos database represents the most complete and expansive mapping of human knowledge on climate change ever assembled.
The articles and visuals below will guide you through how the Cosmos database was built, as well as all the subsequent analysis, including the Cosmos 500 rankings of most cited authors, publications and institutions.
The post Project Cosmos appeared first on Carbon Brief.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/project-cosmos/
This is the vast “cosmos” of academic literature and evidence that underpins humanity’s knowledge of climate change.
Every “star” – all 1.8m of them – represents one of the studies inside Carbon Brief’s Cosmos database.
The coloured “nebulae” and “galaxies” within this cosmos illustrate where clusters of studies share similar citations and, hence, areas of common academic focus.
The post Mapped: Inside Carbon Brief’s Cosmos database of 1.8 million climate studies appeared first on Carbon Brief.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-inside-carbon-briefs-cosmos-database-of-1-8-million-climate-studies/
-
Greenhouse Gases10 months ago
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Climate Change10 months 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 Energy8 months agoSending Progressive Philanthropist George Soros to Prison?
-
Carbon Footprint2 years agoUS SEC’s Climate Disclosure Rules Spur Renewed Interest in Carbon Credits
-
Greenhouse Gases11 months ago
嘉宾来稿：探究火山喷发如何影响气候预测