2023 weather, climate and catastrophe report: Asia Pacific insights

This report states that disasters in the Asia Pacific region in 2022 amounted to a total economic loss of USD 80 billion while a substantial protection gap of 86 per cent meant many disaster losses were uninsured. 2022 served as another reminder of the potential impact of climate on the region and the need to continually strengthen resilience.

Organisations, communities and risk carriers should support the development of more resilient buildings and infrastructure both now and into the future. When property is severely damaged after an event there is the opportunity to build back better – structures that will conform to current wind loading standards for instance, will be much more resilient than older properties. At the more extreme community-impact level, such as regular inundation from flooding, decisions need to be made around whether it is practical to build back at the exact location verses the required investment in improvements to flood defences.