Insurance industry and climate change

Big Insurance Companies Are Warning The U.S. To Prepare For Climate Change

Just the Beginning of the Disruption

Via Think Progress

2015

Bracing for the Storm

How To Reform U.S. Disaster Policy To Prepare For A Riskier Future

According to a report released Tuesday by the SmarterSafer coalition, the U.S. needs to increase how much it spends on pre-disaster mitigation efforts and infrastructure protection.

“Our current natural disaster policy framework focuses heavily on responding to disasters, rather than putting protective measures in place to reduce our vulnerability and limit a disaster’s impact,” the report reads. “This needlessly exposes Americans to greater risks to life and property and results in much higher costs to the federal government.”

The SmarterSafer coalition is made up of more than 30 different groups, including some of the biggest insurance companies in the world: Allianz, Liberty Mutual, SwissRe, and USAA, to name a few. Adequately dealing with the risks of climate change is inherently important to the insurance industry...

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The insurance industry  is  a business which is based almost solely on credible estimation of risk. And the risks are growing, the report notes — if global action on climate change is not taken, sea level rise is projected to increase anywhere from 8.4 inches to 6.6 feet above 1992 levels, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Risks of heavy precipitation, wildfires, and heat waves are also projected to increase.

“In short, we face a costlier and more unpredictable future,” the report says. “With the risks so apparent, action must be taken now to curb the harshest effects.”

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Basically anyone with any reason to worry about the future -- financial, political, you name it -- accepts the reality of climate change and the necessity of doing something about it.

And then there’s the Republican Party.

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So why is that?

The answer, of course, is money. The fossil fuel industry donates overwhelmingly to Republicans, and in exchange for this flood of campaign money, Republicans do its bidding. It's that simple.

This isn't just the corruption of politics; it's the perversion of politics.

• For More on Money-in-Politics, see www.recusal.org

At a time when the human race is facing the greatest threat in the history of civilization, a threat that could end all life as we know it, one of the two most powerful political parties in the most powerful country on Earth pretends like that threat doesn't even exist.

If the purpose of politics is to discuss the most important issues of our day and find a way to solve them, then we are failing miserably. It's time to get money out of politics once and for all.

After all, the future of the planet is at stake.

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First-of-its-Kind Report Ranks U.S. Insurance Companies on Climate Change Responses

Climate Change Responses Only Nine of 330 Insurers Get High Grades; The Hartford, Prudential, Munich Re and Allianz Are Among Top Scorers

2014

(Report Overview)

http://www.nlc.org/Documents/NLC-RISC/2014%20Staff%20Conference/Presentation%20and%20Handouts/McHale%20NLC-RISC%20FINAL%20.pdf

http://www.naic.org/cipr_topics/topic_climate_risk_disclosure.htm

(2016 Update)

The Climate Change and Global Warming (C) Working Group will:

• Review the enterprise risk management efforts by carriers and how they may be affected by climate change and global warming. —Essential
• Investigate and receive information regarding the use of modeling by carriers and their reinsurers concerning climate change and global warming. —Important
• Review the impact of climate change and global warming on insurers through presentations by interested parties. —Important
• Investigate sustainability issues and solutions related to the insurance industry. —Important
• Review innovative insurer solutions to climate change, including new insurance products through presentations by interested parties. —Important

• File:Ceres Climate Change InsRiskDisclosureSurvey Final.pdf

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The "Mother of All Risks": Insuring Fossil Fuel Companies

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