Home > Global Warming Threatening Catastrophe, Says Swiss Insurer
Insurer warns of global warming catastrophe
By Thomas Atkins
GENEVA (Reuters) - The world’s second-largest
reinsurer, Swiss Re, warned on Wednesday that the costs
of natural disasters, aggravated by global warming,
threatened to spiral out of control, forcing the human
race into a catastrophe of its own making.
In a report revealing how climate change is rising on
the corporate agenda, Swiss Re said the economic costs
of such disasters threatened to double to $150 billion
(82 billion pounds) a year in 10 years, hitting
insurers with $30-40 billion in claims, or the
equivalent of one World Trade Centre attack annually.
"There is a danger that human intervention will
accelerate and intensify natural climate changes to
such a point that it will become impossible to adapt
our socio-economic systems in time," Swiss Re said in
the report.
"The human race can lead itself into this climatic
catastrophe — or it can avert it."
The report comes as a growing number of policy experts
warn that the environment is emerging as the security
threat of the 21st century, eclipsing terrorism.
Scientists expect global warming to trigger
increasingly frequent and violent storms, heat waves,
flooding, tornadoes, and cyclones while other areas
slip into cold or drought.
"Sea levels will continue to rise, glaciers retreat and
snow cover decline," the insurer wrote.
EXPONENTIAL RISE Losses to insurers from environmental
events have risen exponentially over the past 30 years,
and are expected to rise even more rapidly still, said
Swiss Re climate expert Pamela Heck.
"Scientists tell us that certain extreme events are
going to increase in intensity and frequency in the
future," Heck told Reuters by telephone. "Climate
change is very much in the mind of the insurance
industry."
Over the past century, the average global temperature
has increased by 0.6 degrees Centigrade, the largest
rise for the northern hemisphere in the past 1,000
years, Swiss Re said.
In the short- and medium-term, simply knowing that the
planet is warming will allow society to adapt, for
example, through infrastructure to cope with more-
frequent floods or by instructing farmers to use
drought-resistant cereals.
In other cases, governments need to restrict risk-
taking, such as approving housing developments in low-
lying areas, and improve catastrophe management
capabilities.
In the long term, Swiss Re said, greenhouse gases
widely thought to trigger global warming will need to
be reduced, the use of fossil fuels cut and new energy
technologies developed.
"The role of the insurance industry is through
establishing risk adequate tariffs and to give the risk
taker the opportunity to implement appropriate measures
to reduce the chance of possible losses," Heck said.