IPCC notes link between insurance practices and climate change

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) points to changes in insurance practices as an indirect form of climate change policy in its its fourth report, Climate Change 2007. According to the panel, there is growing evidence that decisions concerning insurance practices, as well as macroeconomic policy, electricity market reform, energy security and forest conservation, for example, are typically considered separate from climate change policy, can significantly reduce GHG emissions. Addressing climate change can be an integral element of sustainable development policies, with national circumstances and the strengths of institutions determining how development policies impact greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the researchers reported.Changes in development paths emerge from the interactions of public and private decision processes involving government, business and civil society, many of which are not traditionally considered as climate policy, the report notes.This process is most effective when actors participate equitably and decentralized decision making processes are coordinated.The panel also found that GHG emissions have increased by 70% between 1970 and 2004, due to human activities, the IPCC reports.Of that increase, 24% occurred between 1990 and 2004. While different GHG emissions have increased at different rates, carbon dioxide emissions have grown between 1970 and 2004 by roughly 80%. The largest growth in global GHG emissions between 1970 and 2004 has come from the energy supply sector (an increase of 145%), the council reports.