Risk Management (November 01, 2009)

CANADIAN INSURERS SHOULD BE DISCLOSING CLIMATE CHANGE INITIATIVES

Canadian insurers should make the effort to answer the same eight questions about climate change initiatives that the U.S. regulator requires insurance companies in its jurisdiction to answer annually, said Paul Kovacs, founder and executive director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction.

Kovacs spoke at the Autorit des marchs financiers’ Rendez-Vous in Montreal on Oct. 26.

The U.S. regulator asks the following eight questions:

• What actions have you taken to assess and reduce emissions?

• How does your risk management strategy address climate change?

• What actions have you taken to identify and assess climate risks?

• Summarize the climate change risks for your company.

• How will climate change affect your investments?

• What actions have you taken to encourage policyholders?

• What actions have you taken to engage other stakeholders? and

• How do tools like models help you manage climate risks?

ARCTIC OCEAN MAY BE FREE OF ICE DURING THE SUMMERS IN THE NEXT 20 YEARS

Within the decade, the Arctic Ocean could be nearly free of ice during the summer months.

New data gathered by the Catlin Arctic Survey earlier this year provides further evidence that the sea ice is thinning faster than previously thought, according to Lloyd’s of London.

Data collected by manual drilling on a 450-km route across the northern part of the Beaufort Sea suggests it is nearly exclusively first-year ice. In the past, this area contained older, thicker, multi-year ice.

The ice floes were 1.8 metres on average, as measured by the CAS ice team. This depth is too thin to survive the summer ice melt, according to a Lloyd’s release.

More than 6,000 measure- ments were taken on a 73- day, three-person trek that began on Mar. 1, 2009.

Loss of arctic sea ice cover could set in motion powerful climate feedbacks that will amplify and accelerate the consequences of global warming, said Dr. Martin Sommerkorn of the WWF International Arctic Programme.