INSURING FUTURE CLIMATE CHANGE Scope Registration Location Program Contact Organizers Social event Accomodation

INSURING FUTURE CLIMATE CHANGE - Preparing and acting today

A European conference for the insurance sector, Oslo, November 3-4, 2008

Latest news

  • The presentations from the conference can be downloaded from here.

  • Brief CVs from the speakers are being posted.

  • The abstracts are ready and may be found here.

  • We have expanded our capacity! Hence, there are still some available seats. The registration closes October 24th!

  • A brief description of each of the conference sessions is available here.

  • The programme is almost complete. We have put together an exiting programme with speakers from Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, UK, Italy, Sweden and Norway. The sessions cover a variety of topics such as climate risk communication, management and estimation for the insurance sector. Case-studies from different regions in Europe covering the most central types of climate extremes such as storms, flooding, sea-level rise and snow-blizzards will be presented.

Scope of the conference

The insurance sector faces considerable challenges ahead. Projections of increased occurrence and intensity of extreme weather events caused by humanly induced climate change may amplify payouts and administrative costs considerably.

Recent trends in weather extremes, with the 11 warmest years worldwide recorded during the last 13 years, means that society must take sensible steps to prepare and act already now. Insurers are at the frontline of climate change, as they meet their clients directly after damages occur. Climate risk management requires mapping vulnerability towards climate change, encouraging adaptation measures and initiating concerted actions within the sector regarding the distribution of responsibility for damages between key-stakeholders and Governments.

Objective

This conference brings together researchers, stakeholders and decision-makers from insurance, science and politics in order to stimulate discussion and dialog. The aim is to promote pro-active actions for reducing risks before serious impacts of climate change are upon us.

While society as a whole must bear the cost of climate change - in the form of higher insurance premiums or infrastructure repairs financed by taxes, knowledge on the effects of climate change on the business and climate protection can bring huge economic opportunities. Thanks to new technologies, increased energy efficiency, and new products within risk management, it is possible to be prepared by acting and planning today.