Lord Levene has urged the insurance industry to address climate change.
Speaking to the World Affairs Council at the National Press Club in Washington, the Lloyd's chairman said: “We cannot risk being in denial on catastrophe trends. We urgently need a radical rethink of public policy, and to build the facts into future planning.”
Levene told delegates that the number of natural catastrophes has doubled since the 1960s, while insured losses have increased almost seven-fold.
He added: “Over the coming years, with warmer sea surface temperatures making landfall more likely, particularly destructive storms are a likely scenario. We can expect the storm season to lengthen, and we will be at risk over a wider geographical area than ever before.
“We need to take co-ordinated action on climate change.”
Levene stressed the positive steps that Lloyd's is taking to address climate change, such as insuring green technology like waste-to-energy recycling plants and wind farms.
“There is an important role which business can play and there is commercial benefit to be gained from doing so,” he said.
With the insured value of properties in US coastal areas doubling over the last decade to more than $7 trillion, Levene said insurers must push for action to limit the potential threat of climate change.
“Two years after Katrina, and two years away from a national election, where's the public debate on catastrophe trends?” Levene said, adding Lloyd's has recently developed a $100 billion loss scenario for a major windstorm hitting the US Gulf or East Coast.
