{"id":70809,"date":"2026-08-12T01:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T01:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/70809\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T01:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T01:51:13","slug":"chronic-heat-risk-in-europe-draws-warning-from-swiss-re","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/70809\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Chronic\u2019 heat risk in Europe draws warning from Swiss Re"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Europe comes to grips with its fifth heat wave of the year, the research arm of Swiss Re<\/a> AG is warning of far-reaching consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecord heat underscores Europe\u2019s chronic heat risk,\u201d the authors of the Swiss Re Institute report said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Record-breaking temperatures are battering a continent that\u2019s less equipped to deal with the shock than other parts of the world. Only about 20% of European households have air conditioning, for example, compared with 76% in North America, Swiss Re Institute notes. That has implications for everything from human health to economic productivity, it said.<\/p>\n

Europe is now struggling to cope with temperatures that \u201creduce agricultural productivity, strain water and energy systems, damage infrastructure, and lower labor productivity,\u201d the report\u2019s authors said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The continent is heating up almost twice as fast as the rest of the world, a development that Swiss Re Institute warns can have \u201csevere\u201d consequences. The comments follow a report last month by Munich Re AG, in which it warned of the \u201cdangerous mix\u201d posed by El Ni\u00f1o and global warming.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two firms\u2019 analyses fit into a developing picture in which the insurance industry finds itself bracing for a\u00a0new era of risk<\/a>\u00a0brought on by relentless temperature rises that are disrupting weather patterns.<\/p>\n

Extreme heat has now left most of England gripped by\u00a0drought conditions<\/a>\u00a0that are impacting harvests. Elsewhere in Europe, rivers crucial to transporting key commodities are drying up.<\/p>\n

Oxford Economics said in a note on Tuesday that low water levels in Germany\u2019s Rhine River have left chemical, metal and construction firms most at risk as supplies are disrupted. The development also implies higher inflation, while nuclear and hydro power are now being \u201cadversely affected by hot rivers, leading natural gas to set electricity prices,\u201d Oliver Rakau, chief Germany economist at the researcher, said in the note.<\/p>\n

Though Europe\u2019s wildfire risk \u201cis still considered moderate, the increase in fire activity warrants closer attention,\u201d Swiss Re Institute said. \u201cAs heat in Europe increases, wildfire-conducive conditions are likely to become more frequent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fires in France, Spain and Greece have caused as much as \u20ac19.1 billion ($22 billion) in total damage and economic loss this summer, according to a preliminary\u00a0estimate<\/a>\u00a0by AccuWeather. Heat and drought will continue to keep Europe\u2019s wildfire risk elevated into the fall, the weather-tracking firm said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEurope\u2019s recent wildfires highlight how hotter and drier conditions are making large wildfires more likely, and \u2014 with more homes, businesses and infrastructure built in risk-exposed areas \u2014 also more costly,\u201d Balz Grollimund, head of catastrophe perils at Swiss Re, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The warning comes despite the decline in insured losses tied to natural catastrophes in the first half of 2026. Swiss Re Institute puts the figure at $42 billion, which it noted is \u201cwell below the long-term trend.\u201d The most destructive event was the Venezuela\u00a0earthquakes<\/a>\u00a0in which more than 5,000 people died, it said.<\/p>\n

Severe convective storms, such as thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes, generated smaller first-half losses than in previous years. However, Swiss Re Institute said that \u201cthe relatively low insured losses were not a result of subdued storm activity.\u201d It also warned that a \u201cquiet first half is not necessarily indicative of below-average annual losses,\u201d adding that the long-term \u201cupward trend in insured losses is intact.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A key risk for insurers to focus on now is how the world \u2014 and Europe in particular \u2014 adapts to rising temperatures, with wildfire risk a particular concern. Europe\u2019s \u201cextensive wildland\u2013urban interface zones mean that a severe fire near densely populated areas could still generate substantial economic losses,\u201d Swiss Re Institute said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Europe comes to grips with its fifth heat wave of the year, the research arm of Swiss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21149],"tags":[52573,36234,3523,21154,21155,52574],"class_list":["post-70809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-munich-re","tag-european-crisis","tag-heat","tag-infrastructure","tag-munich-re","tag-munich-reinsurance","tag-weather-and-forecasting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}