Journey to the Top of the Earth

It’s not often an insurance/reinsurance company is offered the opportunity to sponsor an expedition with consequences that could be described as ‘crucial’ to the future of the Earth’s population. However Catlin Group Limited, the parent company of Catlin Canada, is the title sponsor of just such an endeavour.

The Catlin Arctic Survey is as tough as science gets. The expedition will travel 1,300 kilometres on foot to the North Pole, swim across the leads between ice floes and endure temperatures as low as -50 C to take 13-million measurements of Arctic ice. Using these measurements, scientists will be able to measure the thickness and density of the permanent ice surrounding the North Pole.

WHY?

Despite the technological advances of the 20th century, we still only have estimates of the thickness of the sea ice cover on the Arctic Ocean. And insurance underwriters, who are used to basing their decisions on as many facts as possible, find this disturbing. Thus the Catlin Arctic Survey team will help to measure precisely the thickness and density of the polar ice cap at the North Pole. This will enable the program’s elite group of science partners — including WWF International, the U. S. Navy and NASA — to determine with a greater degree of accuracy how long the ice cap will remain. Currently its predicted meltdown date is anywhere between four to 100 years from now. Knowing the accurate rate of meltdown will help researchers and underwriters predict how — and how quickly — climate change might be affecting damage claims related to severe weather events.

THE EXPEDITION

On Feb. 22, 2009, a three-person team led by famed Arctic explorer Pen Hadow started to travel on foot, beginning at the edge of the permanent sea ice off the Canadian coast. The group plans to trek across 1,200 kilometres of disintegrating and shifting polar pack ice to reach the North Pole in late May. During their journey, the team will experience temperatures as low as -50 C (with windchills as low as -90 C). They aim to cover about 18 kilometres a day, pulling sledges weighing up to 100 kilograms.

The Catlin Arctic Survey will use a specially developed, portable, ice-penetrating radar. This radar device, slightly bigger than a breadbox, will be dragged behind the ‘sledges’ that carry the explorers’ equipment. It will take a detailed measurement of both the snow and ice layers every 10 centimetres along the route. Groundbreaking satellite communications equipment, developed specifically for this project, will allow the survey team to transmit their unfolding story directly from the ice to a global audience.

Data obtained by the Catlin Arctic Survey will then be published in a report to be presented by WWF International to the United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties, to be held in Copenhagen in November 2009. This conference will reassess the Kyoto Protocols.

INVESTIGATING CLIMATE CHANGE

Catlin is sponsoring the expedition because the implications of global warming for the insurance industry and policyholders are stark: the effects of climate change could affect a wide range of insurable events.

“The potential effects of global warming will have a direct impact on Catlin’s business,” said Stephen Catlin, CEO of Catlin Group Limited. “The Catlin Arctic Survey will produce vital information that can be used by all those who must plan for the potential effects of global warming.”

The Catlin Arctic Survey, of course, provides Catlin with numerous marketing opportunities similar to those provided to insurers sponsoring sporting events or artistic exhibitions and performances. Be that as it may, Catlin is most interested in the scientific data provided by the Catlin Arctic Survey, which will serve to increase the insurance industry’s and global understanding of the impact of climate change.

This information will not only be useful to underwriters but also to the risk management and claims community. Catlin Canada’s risk and claims services manager April Savchuk comments: “The increasing probabilities faced of falling victim to the phenomenon of adverse climate change clearly demonstrates our vulnerabilities when ‘negotiating’ with Mother Nature. Exaggerated changes in climate can result in the usual variety of distinct physical events and losses, but the added burden on business — including how to best manage contingencies associated with the events — is unprecedented. The only way to better manage this is to become intimate with its cause and effect.”

Insurers worldwide are taking a greater interest in climate change, studying the causes of changing climatic conditions, as well as conducting research into the potential impact of climate change on the insurance industry and its policyholders.

Scientists, sponsored in part by insurers, are currently researching whether or not the recent increase in Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes are the result of climate change or other cyclical weather patterns that have emerged in the past.

Other researchers are broadening their scope to cover the less obvious. Last autumn, for example, Munich Reinsurance Co. sponsored a seminar in Princeton, New Jersey that focused on which companies could potentially be held liable for causing climate change — and whether liability insurers could be exposed to potential claims.

In London, England, more than 40 leading companies and organizations in the insurance industry (including Catlin) have joined an initiative called ‘Climate- Wise.’ Each company, including Lloyd’s of London and major insurance brokers, has committed to take action to reduce the risk of climate change and report publicly on their performance.

“Our sponsorship of the Catlin Arctic Survey was generated in part by our participation in ClimateWise,” said Mike Hansen, president of Catlin Canada. “Companies that join ClimateWise make a commitment to take steps to analyze and reduce the risks associated with climate change,.We believe the Catlin Arctic Survey will make a great contribution to climate change research.”

The journey can be followed online at: www.catlinarcticsurvey.com