The
Guardian, 22
March 2019:
Insurers have warned
that climate change could make cover for ordinary people unaffordable after
the world’s
largest reinsurance firm blamed global warming for $24bn (£18bn) of
losses in the Californian wildfires.
Ernst Rauch, Munich Re’s
chief climatologist, told the Guardian that the costs could soon be widely
felt, with premium rises already under discussion with clients holding asset
concentrations in vulnerable parts of the state.
“If the risk from
wildfires, flooding, storms or hail is increasing then the only sustainable
option we have is to adjust our risk prices accordingly. In the long run it
might become a social issue,” he said after Munich Re published a report into
climate change’s impact on wildfires. “Affordability is so critical [because]
some people on low and average incomes in some regions will no longer be able
to buy insurance.”
The lion’s share of
California’s 20 worst forest blazes since the 1930s have occurred this
millennium, in years characterised by abnormally high summer temperatures and
“exceptional dryness” between May and October, according to a new analysis by
Munich Re.
Wetter and more humid
winters spurred new forest growth which became tinder dry in heatwave
conditions that preceded the wildfires, the report’s authors said.
After comparing
observational data spanning several decades with climate models, the report concluded
that the wildfires, which killed 85
people, were “broadly consistent with climate change”.
Nicolas Jeanmart, the
head of personal insurance, general insurance and macroeconomics at Insurance
Europe, which speaks for 34 national insurance associations, said the knock-on
effects from rising premiums could pose a threat to social order.
“The sector is concerned
that continuing global increases in temperature could make it increasingly
difficult to offer the affordable financial protection that people deserve, and
that modern society requires to function properly,” he said.
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