According to a new report, climate change is now the number one concern for North American insurers.

Max Rudolph, fellow of the Society of Actuaries and author of the report, said this is the 12th year the group published an analysis.

"Climate change took the biggest jump this year of I believe any risk that I can remember, seeing it jump from 7 percent up to 22 percent," he said.

Rudolph added that it's becoming harder for risk managers to avoid thinking about climate change. He pointed to major hurricanes in 2017 and the longer, more intense wildfire seasons we're seeing in the west.

"My personal opinion is that this is a case of the risk managers catching up to the actual risk that is out there," he explained.

Rudolph said it's a good time for business owners to start adapting to the changing environment, by questions like, "How does this building code going to be impacted by potential flooding or potential wildfires?"

Cybersecurity and financial volatility ranked second and third behind climate change for largest current risks.

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.