In advance of COP27 at Sharm El-Sheikh , the Financial Times has stated that ‘developing countries need up to $340bn a year to adapt to extreme weather’. Elsewhere, CNN reports that the US Treasury has launched an assessment as to how and by how much extreme weather is increasing insurance premiums.

It is clear is that we live in ever uncertain times, in terms of climate. Weather is not climate of course, and it doesn’t help to confuse the two. Nevertheless, we all remember from our secondary school days that Ireland has a temperate, mild, humid climate with abundant rainfall and the absence of temperature extremes. Generally, Atlantic low-pressure systems are well established by December, and depressions move rapidly eastward in December and January, bringing strong winds with appreciable frontal rainfall to Ireland. Much less frequently, there are occasions from late summer months through Autumn when there is a risk of former tropical depressions mixing with the North Atlantic weather pattern depressions to produce severe storms.

As Loss Assessors we have seen the effect that weather can have on property, even before storms were ‘named’ weather warnings were issued! Storms have been a feature of property insurance policies and claims for decades. Be it ‘abundant’ rainfall or strong winds, the capacity for relatively short lived weather events to create chaos and costs is well-known. The havoc wreaked by storms and floods leaves policyholders with the time-consuming and complex task of dealing with their insurers whilst trying to mitigate the damage and plan for reinstatement .

Professional, regulated Public Loss Assessors take away the stress that follows-on from these events: dealing with the Insurer, providing high-quality advice gleaned from years of experience, securing the full entitlement and providing claimants with the best possible outcome to the storm damage insurance claim.

John O’Donoghue

John O’Donoghue is the Managing Director of OMC Claims, Loss Assessors with offices throughout Ireland