Can Europe’s insurers keep up as wildfires drive rising climate losses?

Wildfires rage across southern Europe, pushing reinsurers to brace for higher demand. This is the market’s immediate response to escalating climate events. Economic losses from extreme weather are mounting, but a substantial portion of that damage goes uninsured. Businesses, for their part, are underestimating their exposure, even as projected financial impacts run into hundreds of billions. The question for insurers, and indeed for the broader economy, is whether the current market dynamics adequately reflect the accelerating reality of climate risk, or merely offer a temporary reprieve.