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European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority
News article5 December 2022

EIOPA’s dashboard identifies the European natural catastrophe insurance protection gap

EIOPA insurance natural catastrophe

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) released today its dashboard, which depicts the insurance protection gap for natural catastrophes across Europe. This tool is the first dashboard which presents the drivers of a climate-related insurance protection gap to identify measures that will help in decreasing society’s losses in the event of natural catastrophes in Europe.

In the past, about a quarter of the total losses caused by extreme weather and climate-related events across Europe were insured. Losses to properties and businesses are expected to grow due to climate change, with the price of insurance also expected to increase. Over the medium-to-long term, this can lead to insurance becoming unavailable or unaffordable, resulting in a further widening of the insurance protection gap.

Key features of the dashboard

The dashboard brings together data on economic and insured losses, risk estimations as well as insurance coverage from 30 European countries.

It presents the data in four different views:

  • Current view. Using modelling data, this view indicates the current protection gap according to a particular peril (e.g. flood, earthquake).
  • Historical view. Using data of insurance coverage and economic losses from 1980 to 2021, this view presents a historical protection gap according to a particular peril.
  • Country view. This view presents additional information of the current protection and historical protection gaps for each country.
  • Country insurance view. This view presents information on how natural catastrophes are covered by country.

The dashboard enables evidence-based decision-making on measures to improve society’s resilience against natural catastrophes. It should also help to increase the awareness of the protection gap and promote a science-based approach to protection gap management and policy making. This approach will help in identifying regions at risk, protection gap risk drivers as well as defining proactive prevention measures. The dashboard will be updated regularly.

In releasing this dashboard, EIOPA delivers on its commitment made on the occasion of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) to finalise the dashboard, as part of its overall support to the insurance and occupational pensions sectors in tackling climate change.

The dashboard was first released by EIOPA in 2020 as a pilot version.

Discover the dashboard

Background                                                                              

The dashboard is one element of EIOPA’s approach to address protection gaps. Addressing gaps effectively requires a broad view, taking into account not only how gaps are measured, but also both the supply and demand side of insurance. EIOPA is addressing all three aspects in its current work, as part of its sustainable finance activities 2022-2024 with the goal of facilitating the transition to a more sustainable and resilient economy.

On 7 December EIOPA will hold its conference on sustainable finance. Subsequent publications will focus on:

  • the macro-prudential impact of the protection gap,
  • “impact underwriting”: whether adaptation measures can help in increasing the supply of insurance;
  • the reassessment of the natural catastrophe risk capital charges,
  • and an analysis of the drivers of demand for property insurance.

Details

Publication date
5 December 2022