There are warning signs that severe climatic events are already impacting inland waterway operations, according to international freight and cargo handling insurer TT Club. These impacts are widely forecast to get worse in the future.
Inland waterways have long been a critical artery for cargoes, and increasingly for those that are heavy and oversize. In 2024, European waterways experienced significant disruption to cargo transport. In June, the Rhine suffered from extreme weather conditions with torrential rain leading to severe flooding in southern Germany. Cargo handling was interrupted to/from Switzerland and caused substantial delays in inland traffic between the Lower and Upper Rhine.
Conversely, increased droughts have led to record low water levels on major rivers with some vessels carrying only 25 percent of their usual load to avoid running aground and causing delays. Shipping lines have had to switch cargo from river to rail to maintain connections between industrial regions and the ports, said TT Club.
2024 was the hottest year on record globally. Reinsurer Swiss Re reported natural catastrophe losses exceeding USD100 billion for the fifth year in succession and with 37 events recording losses over USD1 billion the prior year as reported by the Financial Times, from extreme weather. Estimates forecast that insured losses could double within the next 10 years.
“Climate change effects on river navigation are significant as it is highly sensitive to changes in weather patterns and long-term climate trends,” said Neil Dalus from TT’s loss prevention department. “This challenge highlights the vulnerability of Europe’s inland waterway transport system, emphasising the need for infrastructure improvements, planning for risk mitigation and workforce training to ensure operational resilience.”
TT’s historical data points to an continuing rise in claims from weather-related losses over the last 10 years. These result from numerous types of damage from navigational and berthing accidents to collapse of cranes and port equipment collisions to container stacks blowing over, and of course flood damage to buildings and infrastructure.
Uninsured and consequential losses can also be costly, said Dalus: “As a result of operational delays reputational damage can occur. Emergency supplies and additional labour costs can accrue and increased maintenance, training and management downtime have to be factored in.” As a mutual insurer TT said it would work in assisting inland waterway operators to devise loss prevention strategies to help minimise the future costly consequences of weather-related incidents.
