British insurers prepare for 'worst case' climate impacts

By EVAN LEHMANN of ClimateWire
British insurers are raising rates on homeowners to insulate themselves from increasing claims blamed on climate change, a justification that U.S. companies are hesitant — or unable — to embrace. The price of policies covering buildings in the United Kingdom rose 10 percent over the last year as insurers struggle to harness losses from severe weather occurring in places that historically had been impervious to events like flooding, according to the Automobile Association, a large British insurance broker. Those rate hikes are driven by rising damages from heavier precipitation, flash floods and violent storms, the brokerage firm found. Claims rose 15 percent when compared to the first six months of 2008, often in places with “little or no previous record of such claims.” “What we’re seeing is flood claims and severe weather damage claims in places — really strange places [and] different parts of the U.K. — where there is no history of extreme weather,” said Ian Crowder of the Automobile Association. The number of natural catastrophes is rising worldwide. So is the damage they inflict. In this decade, U.S. insurers have seen claims rise 53 percent, or $7 billion a year, over the period of 1990-99, when inflation adjusted losses averaged $12.9 billion annually, according to the Insurance Information Institute, an industry group. …

British insurers prepare for ‘worst case’ climate impacts; Americans mostly don’t