Broker Aon has launched a report outlining how each new catastrophe is evidence of the “fingerprints” of climate change.

The “Real-Time Climate Change” report focuses on three recent natural perils: Hurricane Ida, the flood disasters in Europe and Asia this northern hemisphere summer and the US wildfires in California.

“As the world contemplates the current and looming impacts of climate change, we must examine the effects we are already experiencing today and the steps that can be taken to start mitigating and preparing right now,” the report said.

“Weather-related costs are expected to further rise as events become more frequent or intense, people continue to move into attractive yet vulnerable areas and the price of daily life becomes more expensive.”

Aon says in the past decade alone, weather-related disasters have resulted in nearly $US3 trillion ($4.1 trillion) in economic damage.

These losses include direct impacts from such perils as tropical cyclones, flooding, and wildfire, all of which are demonstrating changing behaviour that is putting more lives, livelihoods and property at risk, the broker said.

The report says Ida, which made landfall in the US state of Louisiana in August, is the latest cyclone event to show changing patterns.

Ida rapidly intensified up to the point of landfall, and then slowly weakened while inland.

“This slow motion and remnant moisture would later spawn record rainfall and subsequent flooding,” Aon said. “As the climate warms, the amount of moisture the atmosphere can hold increases.

“This can result in more extreme rainfall and subsequent flooding.

“This phenomenon can be seen anywhere in the world and is further amplified in the tropics where there is heightened influence by warmer sea-surface temperatures.”

Aon says Ida is another example of the critical need to invest in infrastructure modernisation, regular updating of flood risk maps, and rebuilding or retrofitting coastal and inland properties to withstand the growing risks associated with the peril.

Click here for more from the report.