Wildfires across parts of Canada and the US, as well as blazes in southern France caused significant damage and sparked warnings of the impact of extreme weather events.
More than 500 wildfires were burning out of control in Canada, authorities there said, and around 81 million people in the US were under air quality alerts. In France, meanwhile, the prime minister described a “catastrophe on an unprecedented scale.”
Changing weather patterns, driven in large part by climate change, are having serious financial consequences: The first six months of 2025 saw about $80 billion in insured catastrophe losses worldwide, the reinsurer Swiss Re said. “Wildfire risk is evolving… with changing climates compounding the loss threat that fires present,” it said.