About 47 natural disasters – most of which are the result of climate change – have hit the country (its society and economy) in the last 30 years, causing incalculable damages, with the cost of their restoration mainly burdening the state budget and individuals and secondarily insurance companies.
Based on data revealed to “Naftemporiki” by the Union of Insurance Companies in the period 1993 – 2022, i.e. the last 30 years, the total amount of compensation covered by insurance companies for damages to individuals with insurance policies against risks from natural disasters or other extreme phenomena was recorded at 476 million euros.
If this amount is calculated in current prices (compensation values multiplied by the cumulative change in the average inflation from the year of each event until 2022), its total value reaches 680 million euros.
Taking, as a given, that the Protection Gap (insurance gap) in Greece reaches 75%, then the total value of damages caused by extreme weather or other phenomena is around 3 billion euros.
According to a recent survey by “Naftemporiki”, the catastrophic fires of the last two months, which in fact cost many human lives, have skyrocketed the economic damages to over 1.2 billion euros. Of course, the large extent of the damage is attributed to the fact that this is one of the largest forest disasters that have historically been caused in the country and, as regards Evros in particular, it is the largest forest fire in Europe.
In fact, this year, the total cost of damages is increasing due to the extreme weather phenomena, with heavy rains and hailstorms that have hit a large part of the country for two days now, with the disasters being incalculable, especially in Central Greece, and in particular on Volos and Pelion.
