Insurers call climate change the ‘mother of all risks’

The UK is set to miss a hardly ambitious target of providing 15 per cent of the country's energy needs from renewable sources by 2020, according to MPs. A report from the Parliamentary Energy & Climate Change Committee says that it is three quarters of the way towards a 30 per cent sub target for electricity generation, and should exceed it, but the country is not even half way towards hitting a

12 per cent target for heat while the proportion of renewable energy used in transport actually fell last year. The targets were set under the EU's renewable energy plan, and before you say "Brexit" we still have to meet them. UK law is currently based upon them, but even were that not the case, it is in our own economic self interest to start acting. Failure will not only damage the UK's supposed reputation for climate change leadership, it will contribute to the reality of it, and therefore it will have a demonstrable economic impact that some people are already starting to feel.

Scientists have been urging action for what seems like forever, but, of course, "Britain has had enough of experts," as arch Brexiteer Michael Gove once said. Does that extend to insurers? It oughtn't to because if they feel unhappy about the potential impact of climate change they will charge us more for cover. Swiss Re knows a thing or two about global catastrophes because its business is to provide protection against them. It insures other insurers and so has to know all about the risks they protect against. It takes climate change very seriously.

According to the company's sigma report, that came out a couple of years ago it, the cost of it could soar to a staggering 20 per cent of Global GDP by the end of this century. Think of that this way: it's one pound out of every fiver in your pocket. British insurers have made similar points. Just last month Aviva's boss Mark Wilson described climate change as "the mother of all risks — to business and to society as a whole."

Mr Wilson isn't a tree hugger, or a detached scientist. He's a hard headed businessman who knows that climate change is going to cost an obscene amount of money if we don't act. It's also going to push insurance premiums through the roof.

Want more? Here's Matt Cullen, head of strategy at the Association of British Insurers: "Insurers pay close attention to climate change and are strong supporters of efforts to restrict rising global temperatures because they, and their customers, have to live with the consequences. More extreme weather events, and increasing uncertainty about climate risks, mean more claims, more volatility and — in the worst cases — insurability problems for consumers desperate to protect their homes and livelihoods".