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Insurers hit by climate change
Insurers are struggling to assess the risks from climate change, industry officials say, with the floods in Australia and Brazil highlighting the potential losses from greater extremes of weather. Overall losses from weather-related natural catastrophes rose by a factor of three in the period 1980-2009, taking inflation into account, while insured losses from such events increased by a factor of about four during the same period. Total insured losses from natural disasters in 2010 were $37bn (£23.1bn).