Kaj Embren, Climate Policy & Energy Transition Advisor | Top 5 Sustainability Influencer in Europe | Expert in Methane Abatement & VAM Technology | Host of “Transformers” Podcast – August 11, 2026
Bloomberg reported today that Swiss Re Institute is warning Europe’s heat risk has become chronic — not an occasional shock, but a standing feature of the continent’s risk landscape. More than 25,000 heat-related deaths across Europe this year. An estimated €19 billion in wildfire damage across France, Spain and Greece. Europe is warming at nearly twice the global average, with 64% more days above 30°C than in the 1950s. Swiss Re’s own CEO has admitted the fatality risk was underestimated.
This is exactly the trajectory I mapped out starting in 2024, in the “Navigating Climate Change” series I wrote for Swiss Re — on how climate risk was already reshaping US insurance markets, how cities from New York to the Netherlands were redesigning themselves against coastal flooding, and how Sweden was rethinking climate finance. I followed it on my own blog with pieces on Spain’s “Extraordinary Risk Insurance” model, why it stands apart from the rest of Southern Europe, cities’ growing struggle with extreme heat, and this year’s “Five Priorities for Urgent Action.”
Two years on, the data keeps confirming what those articles argued. What hasn’t kept pace is the response. In the US, insurers have pulled back from California and Florida while state and federal policy still lags on land-use and rebuilding standards. In Europe, the wildfire-and-heat protection gap keeps widening while much of the region’s exposed wealth remains uninsured. The same pattern is playing out elsewhere — from heat domes over South Asia to drought across the Sahel: risk models are moving faster than the legislators and boardrooms meant to act on them.
Insurers can price risk. They can’t rewrite zoning law, retrofit cities, or fund resilient infrastructure. That is squarely on governments and businesses — and too many are still managing the narrative instead of the exposure.
Links to the series and the follow-up pieces below. Would be glad to hear what others are seeing play out in their own markets.
Navigating Climate Change (Swiss Re, 2024):
- How Climate Change Is Shaking up Insurance in the US in 2024 — https://kajembren.org/how-climate-change-is-shaking-up-insurance-in-the-us/
- From NYC to the Netherlands, Innovation Helps Cities Tackle Coastal Flooding — https://kajembren.org/from-nyc-to-the-netherlands-innovation-helps-cities-tackle-coastal-flooding/
- A Very Swedish Approach to Climate Finance and Insurance — https://kajembren.org/a-very-swedish-approach-to-climate-finance-and-insurance/
Follow-up, on the blog:
- Spain’s “Extraordinary Risk Insurance” — https://kajembren.org/spains-extraordinary-risk-insurance/
- Why Spain’s Disaster Insurance Stands Apart from Southern Europe’s — https://kajembren.org/why-spains-disaster-insurance-stands-apart-from-southern-europes/
- Cities Grapple with the Growing Threat of Extreme Heat — https://kajembren.org/cities-grapple-with-the-growing-threat-of-extreme-heat/
- The Climate Tipping Point of 2025: Five Priorities for Urgent Action — https://kajembren.org/the-climate-tipping-point-of-2025-five-priorities-for-urgent-action/
Bloomberg coverage: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-11/-chronic-heat-risk-in-europe-draws-warning-from-swiss-re-unit
