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Global warming is already having an impact on extreme weather disasters. In 2006 Peter Höppe, head of Munich Re’s Geo Risks department, co-chaired a workshop on the subject and told Nature: “Climate change may not be the dominant factor, but it has become clear that a relevant portion of damages can be attributed to global warming” (see Pielke in Nature: “Clearly, since 1970 climate change … has shaped the disaster loss record.”). And the science makes clear, the impact is only going to grow (see “Even U.S gov says human emissions are changing the climate“). Insurance companies now have to take note. This guest post on the subject, by Mark Meier, was first published by ScienceProgress.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners last week suddenly made the science of calculating the consequences of a rising sea level anything but academic. These state insurance regulators will now require insurance companies to submit annual “climate-risk” reports, which must include (among many other things) the risk of extreme weather events such as inexorably rising sea water. The decision follows a March 12 blast from the National Research Council complaining that state and local government officials were also guilty of ignoring climate change in their infrastructure decisions.
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