Climate disruption has a price. The cost of climatic events in France reached five billion euros for insurers in 2024. It is less than the average 2020-2024 (5.6 billion), but much more than the average of the years 1982-1989 (1.5 billion), said France Insurers on Wednesday.
This figure of five billion euros ranks the year 2024 in the 9th place in terms of costs for the profession since 1982, the date of the creation of the natural disasters regime. In detail, storms, hail and snow cost insurers and natural disasters 2.2 billion euros weighed for two billion.
Storms and hail are covered in insurers’ damage contracts, while floods and droughts depend on the “cat nat” diet. The state then takes half of the costs to reduce the invoice of insurers.
During 2024, the damage caused by Kirk and Leslie storms in October, and the Cévenols and Mediterranean episodes amounted to 785 million euros. The floods that struck the North and Pas-de-Calais between November 2023 and January 2024 cost 430 million euros in total.
Three cyclones overseas
The overseas territories were struck for their part, in the space of 13 months, by three cyclones (Belal in April 2024 then Garance in March 2025 in Reunion, and Cyclone Chido in December in Mayotte) at a cumulative cost of more than a billion euros. The damage caused by Chido in Mayotte alone represents 500 million euros.
In home insurance, with a rainy 2024 year 2024 for more than 20 years in metropolitan territory, the frequency of water damage experienced 12 %, particularly in regions with the strongest pluviometric surplus.
These rain surpluses generate a high risk of remonstration of clays (RGA), which makes the buildings crack, in the event of a strong drought during the summer of 2025, warns France Insurers. In 20 years, water damage compensation has more than doubled (+ 134 %) due to the increase in the frequency and the average cost of claims. They represent the first post of claims in 2024 in home insurance.