Insurance Journal » Climate Change

Will Supreme Court Enter Climate Change Debate?

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:36:41 +0000

With a barrage of legal briefs, a coalition of business groups and Republican-leaning states are taking their fight against Obama administration climate change regulations to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other industry groups, along with …

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Climate Scientists Struggle to Explain Warming Slowdown

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 10:18:38 +0000

Scientists are struggling to explain a slowdown in climate change that has exposed gaps in their understanding and defies a rise in global greenhouse gas emissions. Often focused on century-long trends, most climate models failed to predict that the temperature …

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Report Questions Insurer Readiness, Attitudes on Climate Change

Don Jergler — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:57:51 +0000

A report out Thursday that details responses to a climate change survey from insurers doing business in California, Washington and New York shows many insurers are prepared to deal with today’s extreme weather events, but not longer-term “baseline changes” driven …

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Washington Governor, Senators Differ On Climate Proposal

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:53:11 +0000

Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday insisted Washington state is poised to lead the fight against climate change and urged lawmakers to help him move quickly on the issue. The governor advocated for his inaugural climate change bill in the House …

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More Than 100 Attend Delaware Sea Level Rise Meeting

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:37:43 +0000

More than 100 turned out for the first of three public meetings on preparations for rising sea levels in Delaware. The first meeting was held Wednesday afternoon at Cape Henlopen High School in Lewes. The options being considered by a …

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Commentary: Ice-Free Arctic Ocean in 2030?: Gerard Wynn

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 11:34:41 +0000

Vast uncertainty remains over the causes of melting Arctic sea ice and when it may disappear altogether during the summer, which would have consequences for oil explorers, shipping firms and the fight against climate change. The answer will depend on …

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Davos Strives to Make Climate Talk More than Hot Air

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:33:51 +0000

Climate change is back on the global agenda, with debate in the corridors at Davos given fresh impetus by U.S. President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon both highlighting it as top priority this week. Yet business leaders are …

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Seattle Calculating, Preparing For Climate Change

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:28:10 +0000

Seattle officials predict that parts of Washington’s largest city will be under water as the shoreline creeps higher due to global climate change. City agencies are calculating the local effects of climate change and how to respond and adapt to …

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Governments Struggle with Financial Crisis as the Planet Warms up

Charles E. Boyle — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 21:34:45 +0000

The global economy has been through economic recessions before, and has eventually recovered from them. This time around, however, it must do so while coping with the ever increasing menace of climate change – that makes it a whole new …

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Munich Re 2012 Cat Report Underscores Extreme Weather in U.S.; Sandy Losses

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 12:02:00 +0000

The figures for natural catastrophse that occurred in 2012 are “dominated by weather extremes in the USA,” according to a report from Munich Re. The reinsurers said the U.S. “accounted for a higher proportion of global natural catastrophe losses than …

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Researchers Find Cost of Combating Climate Change Surges as World Delays

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:51:12 +0000

An agreement by almost 200 nations to curb rising greenhouse gas emissions from 2020 will be far more costly than taking action now to tackle climate change, according to research published on Wednesday. Quick measures to cut emissions would give …

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2012 Was Hottest Year for New Jersey Since Record Keeping Began in 1895

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:38:02 +0000

It may not feel like it with the cold temperatures and biting wind of the last few days, but 2012 was the warmest year on record for New Jersey. State climatologists say the average temperature was around 55.9 degrees, the …

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Events that Topped World Insurance News in 2012

Charles E. Boyle — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 14:44:21 +0000

While 2012 wasn’t as tumultuous as 2011, it had its share of insurance shaking trends and events. Here in roughly chronological order are some of them: 1) The costs of the flooding in Thailand in 2011, wasn’t conclusively calculated until …

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UK’s Met Office Sees 2013 as Likely to be One of Warmest on Record

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 11:45:20 +0000

Global temperatures are forecast to be 0.57 degrees [1.026°F] above the long-term average next year, making 2013 one of the warmest years on record, Britain’s Met Office, the UK’s national weather service, said on Thursday. “It is very likely that …

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UMass Amherst Scientists Forecast Warmer, Wetter Northeast Winters

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:07:05 +0000

A new high-resolution climate study by University of Massachusetts Amherst climate scientists — the first to apply regional climate models to examine likely near-term changes in temperature and precipitation across the U.S. Northeast — suggests temperatures are going to be …

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Poor Nations to Seek UN Climate Change Compensation Payments in 2013

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 10:56:01 +0000

Developing nations will push next year for a radical U.N. mechanism to compensate them for the impact of climate change, such as droughts or rising sea levels, despite reluctance among wealthy states which would have to foot the bill. A …

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Extreme Weather is New Normal, U.N.’s Ban Tells Climate Change Talks

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 10:49:04 +0000

Extreme weather is the new normal and poses a threat to the human race, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday as he sought to revive deadlocked global climate change talks. Ban’s intervention came as efforts to agree a symbolic …

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Climate is ‘Changing before our Eyes’ Says World Meteorological Organization

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 11:13:54 +0000

The fact that Arctic sea ice has melted this year to its lowest recorded level shows, along with other weather extremes, that “climate change is taking place before our eyes,” the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Wednesday. The first …

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Colombia to Offer Climate Change Insurance to Coffee Farmers

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 10:59:53 +0000

Colombia is launching insurance to protect coffee plantations hit by climate change, which has damaged output in the world’s top producer of high quality Arabica beans in recent years, officials said on Wednesday. After three years of bad weather and …

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UN Report: Melting Permafrost Seen as New Peril in Global Warming

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:39:44 +0000

Permafrost lands across Siberia and Alaska that contain vast stores of carbon are beginning to thaw, bringing with it the threat of a big increase in global warming by 2100, a U.N. report said on Tuesday. A thaw of the …

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New Land, but also Costs, as Nordic Nations Rise from the Sea

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 12:01:45 +0000

A Stone Age camp that used to be by the shore is now 200 km (125 miles) from the Baltic Sea. Sheep graze on what was the seabed in the 15th century, and Sweden’s port of Lulea risks getting too …

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EU’s Debt Crisis Saps its Ability to Lead Climate Change Debate

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:35:13 +0000

The EU’s debt crisis has sapped its ability to lead the way in global climate talks, which began in Doha on Monday, and to build on a fragile victory it clinched a year ago. The European Union is one of …

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Global Investors Call for Action on Serious Climate Danger

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 10:33:27 +0000

A coalition of the world’s largest investors called on governments on Tuesday to ramp up action on climate change and boost clean-energy investment or risk trillions of dollars in investments and disruption to economies. In an open letter, the alliance …

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Extreme Weather Hits Poor, Middle Class in U.S. the Hardest

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 13:18:53 +0000

U.S. droughts, floods and heat waves likely fueled by climate change in the last two years hit the people who can afford it the least – the poor and middle class, a report published on Friday said. In affected areas …

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President Obama Vows to Address Climate Change

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 14:21:01 +0000

President Barack Obama said he plans to work with Congress in his second term to curb human-aggravated climate change, but not at the expense of the U.S. economy. “I am a firm believer that climate change is real, that it …

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EU Fails to Fill Cash Gap as Climate Talks Loom

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 10:39:20 +0000

EU finance ministers have failed to deliver firm promises of cash to help poor nations deal with climate change, threatening progress at international talks to tackle global warming later this month. Talks on Tuesday in Brussels agreed vague wording but …

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Kreidler’s 4th Term in Washington: Healthcare, Climate Change, Excess Surpluses

Don Jergler — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 23:00:16 +0000

Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler won nearly six in 10 votes in his re-election bid, giving him bragging rights as the U.S.’s longest currently serving insurance commissioner. Kreidler won 57.7 percent of the vote, while insurance broker John Adams, his …

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Utah Lawmaker Mulls Climate Concerns in Wildfire Bill

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 15:45:34 +0000

At the request of a youth group, a Republican Utah lawmaker plans to address concerns about climate change in a bill dealing with wildfires. State Rep. Kraig Powell of Heber City has requested the drafting of legislation that would examine …

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Report Points to Insurance Industry’s Vulnerability to Climate Change

Don Jergler — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 22:18:14 +0000

A report out Thursday urges the insurance industry to act to protect itself and the community against the increasing frequency of extreme weather due to climate change. In short, the report, its authors and those endorsing it want more efforts …

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Climate Change Poses Risks to Food Supplies Beyond U.S. Drought

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 10:36:19 +0000

Downpours and heat waves caused by climate change could disrupt food supplies from the fields to the supermarkets, raising the risk of more price spikes such as this year’s leap triggered by drought in the United States. Food security experts …

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