Twothirds

TWO-THIRDS of young people jetted off without travel insurance – because more than half didn’t think anything would go wrong.

A poll of 2,000 adults found another 58 per cent of these Gen Z and Millennial travellers have skipped getting covered because it costs too much.

But that risk doesn’t always pay off, as 29 per cent of all holidaymakers have had to make a claim after things went awry either before or during their trip.

The average claim came to around £4,500, with top reasons including cancelled holidays due to unforeseen circumstances like illness.

Nearly half (48 per cent) have had to use their policy because of long travel delays, while 45 per cent needed help following a medical emergency overseas.

Emily Barnett, travel insurance expert at Compare the Market, which commissioned the research, said: “Taking out travel insurance should be as instinctive as booking your flights, giving you protection against unforeseen circumstances, for example should you need to cancel before you depart.

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“With the busy winter travel season upon us, whether it’s skiing in the Alps or a visit to the Christmas markets, it’s never been more important to make sure you have suitable cover in place before you set off.”

It also emerged 41 per cent have claimed for delayed or damaged baggage, while 40 per cent needed their policy after being targeted by thieves abroad.

Others have had to rely on insurance after their hotel or travel company cancelled on them, while 38 per cent made a claim to access medication during their trip.

However, 16 per cent didn’t realise their policy needs to match the specific requirements of their holiday – as some trips, such as winter sports, need specialist cover.

And this rises to nearly a third (31 per cent) among those aged 18 to 24.

When it comes to travel worries, the biggest fear among those polled is facing a medical emergency away from home (37 per cent), followed by losing luggage (21 per cent) and missing their flight (19 per cent).

The findings have inspired a striking photo series from Compare the Market, titled ‘What Happened on Holiday’, designed to highlight the importance of booking insurance at the same time as your trip.

Emily Barnett added: “We’re urging Brits to protect their trips early to give themselves peace of mind, so they can focus on making memories instead of mishaps.”

Study authors argue progressive taxes on wealth and carbon-intensive investments could provide a solution.

The wealthiest 10 percent of the world’s people are responsible for two-thirds of the global warming since 1990, according to researchers.

The way in which the rich consume and invest has substantially increased the risk of heatwaves and droughts, wrote the researchers of a study published on Wednesday in the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Climate Change.

This is the first study to quantify the impact of concentrated private wealth on extreme climate events.

“We link the carbon footprints of the wealthiest individuals directly to real-world climate impacts,” lead author Sarah Schoengart, a scientist at the public university of ETH Zurich, told the AFP news agency. “It’s a shift from carbon accounting toward climate accountability.”

Compared with the global average, for example, the richest 1 percent contributed 26 times more to once-a-century heatwaves and 17 times more to droughts in the Amazon, according to the study.

Emissions from the wealthiest 10 percent in China and the United States – which together account for nearly half of global carbon pollution – each led to a two- to threefold rise in heat extremes.

“If everyone had emitted like the bottom 50 percent of the global population, the world would have seen minimal additional warming since 1990,” co-author Carl-Friedrich Schleussner said. “Addressing this imbalance is crucial for fair and effective climate action.”

Burning fossil fuels and deforestation have heated Earth’s average surface by 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit), mostly during the past 30 years.

‘Wealthy emitters play a major role in driving climate extremes’

Schoengart and her colleagues combined economic data and climate simulations to trace emissions from different global income groups and assess their impact on specific types of climate-enhanced extreme weather.

The researchers also emphasised the role of emissions embedded in financial investment rather than just lifestyle and personal consumption. The impact of this consumption and investment is particularly severe in tropical regions such as the Amazon, Southeast Asia and Southern Africa – all areas of the world that have historically contributed the least to global emissions but have been disproportionately impacted by extreme weather.

“Our study shows that extreme climate impacts are not just the result of abstract global emissions. Instead we can directly link them to our lifestyle and investment choices, which in turn are linked to wealth,” Schoengart said. “We found that wealthy emitters play a major role in driving climate extremes, which provides strong support for climate policies that target the reduction of their emissions.”

The authors argued that targeting the financial activities and investment portfolios of high-income individuals could lead to significant climate gains.

“Climate action that doesn’t address the outsized responsibilities of the wealthiest members of society risk missing one of the most powerful levers we have to reduce future harm,” Schleussner said.

Owners of capital, he noted, could be held accountable for climate impacts through progressive taxes on wealth and carbon-intensive investments, thus providing much needed support for adaptation and damage in vulnerable countries.

Earlier research has shown that taxing asset-related emissions is more equitable than broad carbon taxes, which tend to burden those with lower incomes.

Recent initiatives to increase taxes on the superrich and multinationals have mostly stalled, especially since US President Donald Trump’s return to power in January.

In 2021, nearly 140 countries agreed to work towards a global corporate tax for multinational companies with nearly half endorsing a minimum rate of 15 percent, but those talks have stalled as well.

According to the antipoverty NGO Oxfam, the richest 1 percent have accumulated $42 trillion in new wealth over the past decade.

It says the richest 1 percent have more wealth than the lowest 95 percent combined.