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SONAR 2025 Report: Insights Into New Risks Facing Society, Insurance
Swiss Re's SONAR 2025 report analyses new risks to the insurance sector from deepfakes, climate change, agrochemicals and microplastics.
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The SONAR 2025 report examines a series of new risks, offering important insights that could affect society and the insurance sector. Prepared annually by Swiss Re, the report sets out for decision-makers a range of risk factors that are hard to measure but affect life. The 2025 report focuses on many topics, including climate change, digital technologies, social change and health risks, and points to the potential of these risks to strengthen the insurance sector's resilience.
One of the report's most notable points is that digital innovations such as deepfakes, with their ability to produce realistic fake content, are complicating claims verification processes and bringing an increased risk of insurance fraud. It also stresses that rising mortality rates in the post-pandemic period, combined with an ageing population, have created significant pressure on the life and health insurance sector.
Excessive use of chemicals in agriculture is also cited as a notable issue. The report states that overuse of fungicides and pesticides could cause serious declines in crop yields, which could in turn increase claims under agricultural insurance.
As studies reveal the harmful effects of micro- and nanoplastics on health, this could lead to an increase in the number of claim-related lawsuits across many sectors, significantly affecting liability insurance as well. The report also addresses how growing public awareness of ultra-processed foods could lead to lawsuits against food producers and distributors.
In conclusion, the SONAR 2025 report offers critical insights into the new risks facing the insurance sector, contributing to informing decision-makers in the sector.