Climate Change: Best Review's "Catastrophe Losses 2014"

The June issue of Best's Review has a folded, glossy insert suitable for framing (by actuaries, I suppose) named "Catastrophe Losses 2014, which present graphically the magnitude and costs of global catastrophes, both man-made and natural, since 1970. It consists of five panels and a map.

I have attached one of the panels whichs puts in perspective the unusual attention accorded to extreme weather these days. Best's shows that global catasrophe losses were well below average in 2014, which belie the impression I had developed before looking at the data.

The epigrammatic words of Sgt. Joe Friday come to mind: "Just the facts, ma'am."

This is not necessarily a good thing for property and casualty insurers however, as future losses could well return to normal and be greater than the level upon which they now base their rates.

It was also interesting that the data shows that 50% of global catastrophe losses of $34.7bn for insurance companies were in North American, with only 20% in Asia, where conditions tend to be more catastrophic. In this respect, we are still the clear leader.