Full Capacity: Earth is losing its ‘albedo’

July 18 2026 by

Welcome to Full Capacity, a weekly briefing on all the most important developments of the past week with a personal take on the news from our editor-in-chief, Mithun Varkey, delivered to your inbox every Saturday.    

Nat cat update: Back-to-back typhoons have walloped Chinese insurers with a US$1 billion hit, with the carriers reporting nearly 380,000 claims related to typhoons Maysak and Bavi. Insurers have already paid out US$427 million across 20 provinces, including Guangxi, Hubei, and Zhejiang, as of Monday, data from the National Financial Regulatory Administration showed. 

Leadership change. MSIG Asia has appointed Ronak Shah as its new regional chief executive officer, effective from October 1. Shah succeeds Clemens Philippi, who has transitioned to co-chief strategy officer of MS&AD Group.  

M&A spotlight. The high-stakes acquisition of Australian insurance broker Steadfast Group has taken a major step forward, with KKR joining the investment consortium seeking to acquire the firm for US$5.4 billion. KKR will serve as a co-lead investment partner with Dragoneer in Steadfast’s retail brokerage business, while Amwins will acquire the underwriting agency business.  

Meanwhile, in South Korea, the long-drawn sale process for Yebyeol Non-Life Insurance, the bridge insurer set up to wind down the troubled MG Non-Life Insurance, is drawing to a close with the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation picking OK Financial Group as the preferred bidder in the final round of bidding that saw four contenders. 

Easy start. The first half of the year has proved remarkably benign for the continent’s property insurers. Insured losses from natural catastrophes in Asia were below US$2 billion in H1, marking the lowest first-half continental total since 2017, according to Gallagher Re’s latest Natural Catastrophe and Climate Report. Globally, insured nat cat losses reached US$46 billion – the lowest first-half total since 2019 and 28% below the 10-year average.  

A vicious cycle 

As summer tightens its grip on the northern hemisphere, the question is no longer whether the planet is warming, but how much worse it is about to get. 

Japan is brushing up against what it now calls “cruelly hot days,” with temperatures pushing past 38 degrees Celsius and edging toward a newly defined 40 degrees Celsius threshold. This week, South Korea issued its first-ever emergency heatwave alert, urging people indoors.  

The data backs it up. Global land and ocean temperatures for the first half of 2026 rank as the third-warmest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, sitting at 1.33 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. That is very close to thresholds policymakers once treated as red lines. 

Gallagher Re pointed out that a further strengthening of El Nino during the second half of 2026 is likely to support warmer-than-normal conditions globally.  

This is driven by widespread warming in the tropical Pacific. When the world’s largest ocean heats up, it does not stay contained – it enhances the release of heat into the atmosphere and subsequently raises global averages and increases the likelihood of sustained warmth in the months ahead, the reinsurance broker said in its half yearly nat cat report.   

Across the Asia Pacific, the heat is already entrenched. China has recorded its warmest April in parts of Xinjiang and Guangxi, while Hainan endured 10 consecutive days above 40 degrees Celsius. Japan and South Korea have just come through their second-warmest spring on record.  

Even Australia’s cooler months are shifting, with Sydney logging 15 straight June days above 20 degrees Celsius, Gallagher Re data showed. 

But the more unsettling is that we have found more reasons why the warming won’t just continue, it will accelerate.  

Studies show that Earth is losing its albedo, or reflectivity, meaning it is absorbing more solar energy than before.  

Less ice and snow, fewer reflective low clouds, and even cleaner air – with fewer aerosols to scatter sunlight – are all contributing to a feedback loop that increase the rate of warming. 

The pace of this shift is what should concern insurers, policymakers, and anyone tracking climate risk. A study by Nasa scientists published earlier this year found that the rate of albedo decline has more than tripled since 2020, jumping to around 0.27% per year. Between 2000 and 2020, Earth’s albedo was declining slowly, at about 0.09% per year. 

Overall, earth’s reflectivity dropped by about 1.7% between 2016 and 2025.  

The record heatwave in Europe, for example, isn’t an anomaly. As a statement from the Copernicus Climate Change Service noted, it “reflects a climate system continuing to accumulate heat”. 

Our understanding and assumptions about climate change and warming perhaps needs a re-examination. 

People moves

There were several key leadership changes in the region. Notably, Allianz Commercial elevated Jenny Wilhelm to Singapore MD with Will Slade succeeding her as regional distribution head. 

Aon appointed Sean Deehan as CEO of its Strategy and Technology Group for APAC, while Yen Lin Ee has rejoined the firm as Asia regional director in its transaction solutions team. 

Willis has rehired Oliver Pryce as head of its Southeast Asia CRB business, succeeding Rupert Roberts following his promotion to chief commercial officer for Asia. 

OneDegree has named Emily Chow as chief executive officer, while Sompo has appointed Canon Liu as head of financial lines for Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.  

In India, Partner Re has hired Ankur Gupta to lead its Gift City operation. 

Do check out our weekly people move round-up to stay up to speed on the most important appointments in the region. 

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