London (CNN Business) Hurricanes, wildfires and floods cost the world $150 billion in 2019 and losses for business and the economy are only expected to increase, because of a decade-long rise in natural catastrophes with direct links to climate change.

Munich Re , one of the world's largest reinsurance companies, said Wednesday that it expects to see an increase in the frequency and intensity of weather-related disasters in certain parts of the world. Reinsurance companies sell cover to insurers to protect them from very large losses.

"We expect 2020 to be part of this trend towards increasing losses from weather-related disasters, a trend that we have been observing over the last decade," Ernst Rauch, Munich Re's chief climatologist, told CNN Business.

Climate change is contributing to the increase in extreme weather events, said Rauch.

Munich Re, which has been studying climate change since the 1970s, has observed an increase in severe thunderstorms in North America and Europe. The storms are at times accompanied by hail, tornadoes and flooding, and their frequency can most likely only be explained by climate change, Rauch added.

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