Strong evidence is pointing towards the fact that the climate is changing. Most of this warming has happened since the 1970s, with the 20 warmest years having occurred since 1981 and with all 10 of the warmest years occurring in the past 12 years. The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world — including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa.
The understanding of weather patterns and the risks associated with key weather events has always been significant to the insurance industry. However, climate change has recently brought the need for better modeling of future weather into sharp focus. According to the World Bank, weather-related losses and damage have risen from an annual average of about $50bn in the 1980s to close to $200bn. There has been a significant increase of claims caused by storms, floods and hurricanes. This is affecting the insurance market drastically.
As a result, insurers have stopped offering certain types of insurance coverage and many insurers have limited the types of coverage they offer. This has also led to higher insurance premiums.
The types of businesses affected by climate change are increasing. Besides the evident ones such as property, catastrophe and crop insurance, Superstorm Sandy has shown that the reach of extreme weather is much greater than that. For example, the destruction Sandy caused to the eastern US coastline was responsible for claims of up to $300m in lost fine art. The reason for this was that many expensive US beachfront homes were damaged during the storm.
Lloyd's – an insurance market located in London - has recently published a report on catastrophe modeling and climate change. The report calls for the insurance industry to take the impact of climate change and the threats it poses for the industry seriously. A great challenge because uncertainties associated with climate change and the frequency of the most extreme events can make assessing future impacts difficult. For this reason, Lloyd's proposes to investigate into new modeling approaches that build in analyzing possible future events and not just relying on historical data.
The report also says that the responsibility for the impact of climate change doesn't only lie with the private sector: Governments must seize the opportunity to deliver better environmental, housing and wider land use policy. By doing so governments can protect their citizens from the worst effects of climate change, so the report.
This is true, however, driving up standards and making sure we have resilient homes will not mitigate the impact of climate change. Both goverments and the private sector must work together to develop efficient and sustainable climate programs. Citi Global Perspectives & Solutions (GPS), a division within Citibank, recently published a report looking at the economic costs and benefits of a low-carbon future. The most interesting finding in the report is that investing in energy efficiency will save much more money than taking no action. This conclusion rebuts the main argument against climate action – that it’s too expensive.