Insurance Industry Grapples With Impact Of Climate Change

[phantom power]

An unusual onslaught of floods in Mississippi, tornadoes in the Midwest, drought and wildfires in Texas and earthquakes abroad has wiped out hope of much profit for many insurance and reinsurance companies this year.

Natural disasters, including Japan’s earthquake and tsunami, have left the industry on the hook for $60 billion in the first six months of this year alone, according to data from reinsurance giant Munich Re.

That’s nearly five times the first-half average since 2001, and the oftentimes costly hurricane season is just getting underway.

...

“If you have one bad year in 20, that’s okay, but if you start having 10 bad years in 20, that’s something that a risk scientist should be figuring out how to quantify,” says Andrew Castaldi, head of the catastrophe risk unit for the Swiss Re America Corp. “Last year in Texas it was all floods and this year it’s drought. Is that climate change or just natural variability? We’re investigating whether these phenomena are simply normal variability or normal variability with some climate change influence.”

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43672850

[Kolesar]

1. Re has been doing climate protection outreach for many years...eom