Insurance Companies Given Severe Weather Warning

The Geneva Association, a leading international insurance thinktank that examines trends in the global insurance industry, has published a report this week that identifies "a significant upward trend in the insured losses caused by extreme weather events."

It warns that changes in climate mean insurance companies have entered a new, highly uncertain era, and must adapt to what it calls a "new normal" in assessing risks and setting pricing policies. Traditional ways of assessing such risks, based solely on analyzing historical data, are "increasingly failing."

The report, Warming of the Oceans and Implications for the (Re)insurance Industry, says the world's oceans have been warming significantly as the result of rising greenhouse gas emissions - and it is this warming that is the key driver of global extreme events.

Insurance Companies Given Severe Weather Warning