Reinsurer blames climate change for an increase in the frequency and severity of extremely hot and dry events

SCOR has issued a statement on the severe drought on the harvest in the southern part of Brazil. The impact on SCOR’s net technical results should be just below €200m for the half year 2022, according to the global reinsurer. 

It notes that an increase in the frequency and severity of extremely hot and dry events has been experienced over the past few decades. This has been witnessed both in North and South America, and particularly in Brazil, mostly due to climate change. 

”An industry that is among the most impacted is agriculture,” it says. “The need for sustainable agriculture to provide sufficient resources to people is one of the biggest challenges for our society, where insurers and reinsurers have a key role to play.”

The reinsurer has been a longstanding re/insurance player in the Brazilian agriculture market, which is one of the world’s most advanced markets.

In February 2020, SCOR acquired control of AgroBrasil Administração e Participações Ltda (“AgroBrasil”), a Brazilian MGA distributing fruit and grain loss of crop quality and yield insurance protection to Brazilian farmers

At the time of the announcement, Laurent Rousseau, chief executive of SCOR Global P&C, said: “Through this acquisition, SCOR will strengthen its expertise in agriculture insurance, a highly complex specialty.”