Climate Change: The WPC view

Climate change, and its impact on extreme weather events, represents a significant challenge to the insurance industry going forward. One of the responsibilities of WPC’s team of scientists is to digest and interpret ongoing scientific developments in the area of climate change and to provide a balanced perspective that separates fact from hyperbole. This effort consists of thorough reviews of scientific publications and reports, attendance at meteorological conferences, and interactions with leading scientists in face-to-face scientific discussions at our offices. Our goal is to provide detailed summaries of the state of climate change science on a regular basis, and highlight potential insurance industry implications, where appropriate.

Climate Change Impact on Extreme Weather Events and Sea Level:

WPC’s investigations indicate that the following phenomena are expected to show increasing deviations from historical norms as the earth continues to warm:

• Tropical Cyclones
• Sea Level
• European Winter Storms
• Extreme Precipitation Events
• Extreme Temperature Events

Insurance Industry Considerations:

White paper on Climate Change prepared by WPC and RenRe for the World Insurance Forum.

Additional Resources:

USCCSP Report on Weather and Climate Extremes:
http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/cms-filesystem-action/user_files/gav/publications/ksgvh_08_hurr.pdf

MICE program:
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/projects/mice/index.html

Recent Publications on Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change:

T. R. Knutson, et al.: Simulated reduction in Atlantic hurricane frequency under twenty-first-century warming conditions, http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/cms-filesystem-action/user_files/gav/publications/ksgvh_08_hurr.pdf

K. Emanuel, et al.: Hurricanes and global warming: Results from downscaling IPCC AR4 simulations, ftp://texmex.mit.edu/pub/emanuel/PAPERS/Emanuel_etal_2008.pdf