Climate change seen posing big risk for insurers

[jpak]

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSSYD4780120071003

The global insurance industry faces substantial risks from climate change due to the increased incidence of cyclones, floods, drought and bushfires, a major European reinsurer told the Greenhouse 2007 conference.

Losses from tropical cyclones were increasing particularly strongly, Eberhard Faust, head of climate risks at Munich Re, he told the conference organized by the Australian government-backed Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.

Increasingly built-up coastal areas were highly susceptible to catastrophes associated with climate change, with potential annual losses now $200 billion against $25 billion in 1950. Hurricane Katrina caused about $66 billion in losses in 2005 when it devastated the southern United States city of New Orleans, just a year after Hurricane Ivan caused $13.7 billion in property damage in the Caribbean.

Global flood catastrophes were also growing, with flooding in Europe in 2002 causing $3.4 billion in insurance losses.

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[fed-up]

1. and when will the rate hikes/cancellation of homeownerr's policies start??? nt

[jpak]

2. They started on the Gulf and East Coasts in 2004 and haven't stopped since

n/t