Weather disasters could cost $1 trillion in a year
Driven by climate change, weather disasters could
cost as much as a trillion dollars in a single year by 2040, financial experts
warned. "Most insurance and re-insurance companies have no doubt that the
rising tide of losses from weather-related disasters is linked with climate
change," said Thomas Loster of German reinsurance giant Munich Re.
Losses from extreme weather could top $1 trillion in a single year by 2040, a partnership of the United Nations Environment Program and private finance institutions has warned.
Speaking at a major UN climate meeting in Kenya, they said the estimated cost of droughts, storm surges, hurricanes and floods reached a record $US210 billion in 2005.
Such losses linked to global warming were expected to double every 12 years.
The new report was modelled by Andlug Consulting for UNEP FI's Climate Change Working Group, whose members include Dresdner Bank, Bank of America, Swiss Re, UBS and HSBC.
The Andlug study said it seemed likely there would be a "peak year" of losses of more than $1 trillion before 2040.
"Since so much development is taking place in coastal zones the figure may arrive considerably before 2040," it said.
"This is not an environmental doomsday scenario. This is simple, empirical work done between UNEP and the financial services sector."
Financial institutions of this import don't make structural preparations based on myth or rumor. They take as much or more convincing than governments. Not that the politics that drive the latter pay much attention to science, anyway.
Posted: Wed - November 15, 2006 at 06:34 AM