That report came out three weeks before Sandy hit. Another industry group, the Insurance Information Institute, created a presentation in the aftermath of that storm. It noted that, of the twelve most costly hurricanes in US history, ten have occurred in the last decade — even adjusting for inflation.



Nor was the damage last year restricted to Sandy. The III also points out that the drought cost insurers nearly as much: some $16 billion, including federal crop insurance claims.

While insurance organizations clearly recognize the looming financial disruption presented by climate change, it's not clear that individual insurers do. Earlier this year, the think tank Ceres surveyed a number of insurance companies. It found that individual businesses were far less eager to embrace climate change as a motivator. "While the insurance industry has begun to recognize the potential impacts of climate change and to evaluate its likely effects on their business," the report overview reads, "significant challenges remain."

One challenge is getting insurers to prepare properly. Of the 184 companies surveyed, only 23 had comprehensive plans to address climate change. (Included in that 23: Munich Re.) While the threat of effects on revenue was cited by more than half of the companies as a reason to consider developing a climate change policy, well less than half thought climate change posed much of a risk. Forty-seven percent of the insurers "viewed climate change as a potential future loss driver, even though scientific assessments such as the recent IPCC Extreme Events report and draft National Climate Assessment emphasize that climate change is already amplifying extreme events that lead to insured losses."

That may change after a few more Sandys. The Times spoke with Robert Muir-Wood of Risk Management Solutions. Muir-Wood noted that insurers were ready to tackle the issue after Hurricane Katrina, the most costly storm in history. "Insurers were ready to sign up to all sorts of actions against climate change," The Times quotes him as saying. But: "Then the weather calmed down."

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.