All Features articles
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Heated words over science
A heated exchange between scientists helped to bring home to delegates that there is still at least some dissent from the scientific consensus on climate change. The Channel 4 documentary called the The Great Global Warming Swindle was aired in the UK just days before the conference. Using an ...
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You will be in the front line
Whether you like it or not, you are going to be in the front line when it comes to climate change, Stephen Byres, former cabinet minister and today co-chair of the International Change Taskforce, told the insurance industry. New risks, new opportunities and a changing investment climate form the future ...
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Views from the front line
Michael Faulkner collected comments from the conference delegates.
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Follow the leader
The insurance industry can be a leader and a repository of knowledge and expertise in managing our response to climate change was the message that closed a thought-provoking and successful conference from Anthony Hilton, financial editor of the Evening Standard, who acted as chairman for the second day. The final ...
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Q&A with Ernest Raunch
Helen Yates asks Ernst Rauch, a Munich Re windstorm and climate expert, why climate change is still such a controversial topic.Q. There were some heated debates at the Climate Change 2007, particularly among the scientists present. Why, in your opinion, is this issue still so controversial?A. There is actually huge ...
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Reaching the sky, stressing the earth
Insurers must be aware that some of the new big buildings are exposing the system capacity of cities, warned Professor Susan Roaf of the Open University in her presentation on the impact of climate change on mega-cities. “In Los Angeles, many of the new high-rise buildings exceed the capacity of ...
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A changing investment climate
Investors will face major hurdles as the impact of climate change takes hold, experts warned. A lack of reliable predictive data coupled with an inconsistent global approach to climate change would hinder investors in choosing their where to put their money. Alan Brown, head of investment for global asset management ...
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With climate change come risk and opportunity
Emma Jones summarises the opening panel discussion
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A sea change in US opinion
While the current US administration has stubbornly avoided the issue of climate change, not all corporate America is so obdurate, according to Timothy Juliani, markets & business strategy fellow, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, a US based charity. He confirmed the view expressed by another speaker on the ...
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A threat to the chain
Douglas Barnett, head of customer risk management AXA Insurance, called on industry to push down into its supply chains to see where climate change would have the greatest impact and help their suppliers and customers where they can. He pointed out, “The automotive industry works on a just in time ...
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More science in cat modelling
As catastrophe models incorporate more physical science and reduce their dependence on statistical projections of past events, they are better able to represent evidence of climate change in weather events, according to Dr Claire Souch, director international model management, for Risk Management Solutions (RMS)This development is important, Souch said, ...
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Make carbon an everyday commodity
Carbon trading should become as synonymous with everyday trading as gold and foreign exchange. This was the view from brokers on the implications of climate change on carbon markets. Alexander Pohl, senior project manager at HSBC Insurance Brokers, said, “Carbon should be seen like any other asset. If you mention ...
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UN calls on insurance to grasp change
Butch Bacani is not your usual image of a United Nations official. A young looking 33- year old Phillipino, he talks passionately about the need for insurance businesses to adopt a more environmentally friendly approach. His favourite word proves to be “sustainability”. As project manager of insurance, asset management and ...
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A cataclysm of Biblical proportions
Labour MP Michael Meacher set out a cataclysmic vision of the dangers posed by climate change in the second keynote address, concentrating on the devastating impact it could have on life and health. “If we do nothing, global warming will kill billions this century,” he said. The former environment minister ...
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Will Florida Re become a global situation?
The private market will continue to provide catastrophe insurance. So agreed the three panellists taking part in a discussion on government run insurance pools. This is despite the growing climate change threat and fears that developments in Florida this year could set a precedent for greater government involvement. The State ...
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No easy answers on flood risk
Flood is the greatest risk to the UK, and it is increasing. Rising sea levels without real spending on defences and more mitigation would increase the likelihood of another event of the severity of the 1953 North Sea flood. This was the theme that emerged from the panel discussion on ...
