The Insurance Council of Australia says 5,259 claims worth A$321 million ($224 million) have been lodged. Consultancy SGS Economics and Planning has estimated that Sydney’s economy loses as much as A$50 million each day it is blanketed with a toxic haze from smoke billowing in from the fires. An inquiry into the Black Saturday fires estimated the cost at A$4.4 billion.

The Gospers Mountain mega fire has already burned almost 460,000 hectares (1.14 million acres) to the northwest of Sydney, and there was a risk it could join up with the Grose Valley fire in the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney.

. Chicago: Aon plc’s monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report reveals that flooding and inland storms led to multi-billion-dollar economic loss in western and southern Europe during the month.   Italy suffered the majority of losses as an active stretch of...

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Climate Change Resilience Index measured the preparedness of the world’s 82 largest economies and found that based on current trends the fallout of warming temperatures would shave off three percent of global GDP by 2050.Its analysis, which assesses each country’s direct exposure to loss as climate change brings more frequent extreme weather events, found Africa was most at-risk, with 4.7 per cent of its GDP in the balance.