{"id":103896,"date":"2024-12-13T02:55:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T01:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/?p=103896"},"modified":"2024-12-12T14:57:02","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T13:57:02","slug":"climate-change-accounts-for-over-a-third-of-insured-weather-losses-this-century-and-rising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/en\/economy\/climate-change-accounts-for-over-a-third-of-insured-weather-losses-this-century-and-rising\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change accounts for over a third of insured weather losses this century and rising"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cut emissions today to insure tomorrow, warns report as 2024 marks the first year to cross red line of 1.5\u00b0C global heating\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insure Our Future\u2019s eighth annual scorecard report Within Our Power<\/em><\/a> reveals that climate change accounts for an estimated $600 billion, or over a third, of global insured weather losses over the last two decades \u2014 an immense climate price tag that insurers have long been passing on to policyholders. Climate-attributed losses rose from 31% to 38% of total insured weather losses over the last decade on average, outpacing them 6.5% to 4.9% in terms of annual growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cInsurers are fundamentally misunderstanding climate risk by failing to recognize how greenhouse gas emissions have driven up losses throughout this century. Unless we cut emissions sharply this decade, climate damages will grow exponentially and could overwhelm both insurers and economies.\u201d Professor Ilan Noy – Climate attribution economist at Te Herenga Waka \u2014 Victoria University of Wellington and author of the largest peer-reviewed study on how much climate change contributes to weather extremes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The continued fossil fuel expansion pushing those emissions reductions out of reach relies on essential insurance coverage, which is not guaranteed as insurers\u2019 rapid withdrawals from communities show. Moreover, fossil fuel underwriting is economically dubious. The report\u2019s analysis of 28 top global property and casualty insurers found that their estimated share of climate-attributed losses ($10.6 billion) rivaled the $11.3 billion in direct premiums they underwrote for commercial fossil fuel clients in 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more than half the companies, including Allianz, AXA, and Zurich these losses exceeded the coal, oil, and gas premiums. On average fossil fuel premiums make up under 2% of total premiums, raising serious questions about why insurers are not using their outsized influence on the fossil fuel sector to protect the other 98% of their business against spiraling climate risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The industry\u2019s current approach of underwriting fossil fuel expansion that exacerbates climate risks and withdrawing coverage and\/or charging more for these risks is both economically irresponsible and unjust. With 2024 the first calendar year to breach the danger threshold of 1.5\u00b0C temperature rise, rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions are essential to increase affordable coverage and keep premiums manageable \u2014 especially for historically disadvantaged communities.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Gulf Coast, reeling from back-to-back hurricanes fueled by record ocean heat, exemplifies both the need for urgent resilience as well as its painful limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOver the last few years, I have traveled around the world to meet with many oil and gas financiers and insurers because they won’t visit my community of Sulphur, Louisiana. We are living here despite the pollution from the oil and gas projects they’re insuring and the storms caused by the warming planet. We are forced to try to mitigate these risks by hardening our homes because they tell us to, but that cannot keep us safe if they aren’t willing to mitigate the biggest risk of all, which is their support for fossil fuels.\u201d Roishetta Sibley Ozane – Founder of the Vessel Project of Louisiana<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Italian insurer Generali set a new bar this October by adopting the first fossil fuel restriction policy that covers the entire oil and gas value chain and includes in its scope new methane LNG projects that threaten climate targets. However, Insure Our Future\u2019s analysis found that the industry as a whole has stalled on effective climate action even as it abandons communities worldwide to face mounting risks without protection and pay eye-watering costs they had little role in creating. The total commercial fossil fuel insurance market grew marginally in the last two years. Total renewable energy insurance premiums are still under 30% the size of the fossil fuel insurance market ($6.5 billion compared to $22 billion) \u2014 a potential insurance bottleneck for up to $10 trillion of climate transition investments by 2030. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe evidence is undeniable \u2014 climate change represents an existential risk for the insurance industry,<\/em>\u201d write former California insurance commissioner Dave Jones and senior actuary Dr Louise Pryor in a joint foreword for the report. \u201cThe insurance industry has historically helped make societies more resilient. Now it must embrace its power and accelerate the transition to clean energy, stop underwriting new fossil fuel projects, and rapidly align with credible 1.5\u00b0C transition pathways.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With voluntary corporate actions falling far short as irreversible tipping points loom, lawmakers and regulators must act decisively. Insure Our Future\u2019s key recommendations include:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n