Concerned Scientists Outline What U.S. Should Do to Deal with Climate Change

August 12, 2021 by

Six insurers have ruled out Arctic refuge drilling, according to a report out this week from the Gwich’in Steering Committee.

The Gwich’in are the northernmost Indian Nation living in 15 villages scattered across an area from northeast Alaska to the northern Yukon and Northwest Territories in Canada. The committee was formed in 1988 in response to proposals to drill for oil on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The scorecard rates insurers on whether they have enacted policies against insuring oil and gas development projects on the 1.5 million-acre Coastal Plain, which is the calving ground of the Porcupine Caribou Herd on which Gwich’in and other Indigenous communities depend.

The scorecard awarded gold medals to six international insurers “for issuing clear public statements that they will not insure development projects in the Arctic Refuge,” while four earned silver for issuing policies or statements barring such coverage in the Arctic but without specifically citing the Arctic Refuge. Bronze winners have met with the committee but have not issued policies in writing, while multiple companies either failed to earn a medal or were listed as disqualified for not responding to requests to meet with Gwich’in leaders.

The six largest U.S. banks and the five largest banks in Canada have stated publicly that they will not finance projects there, while President Biden has suspended leases that were issued on the final day of the Trump administration following a January lease sale, and the U.S. Department of the Interior announced recently it will review the leasing program to address its deep legal deficiencies and potential environmental impacts.

Concerned Scientists

Following a United Nations report released this week that paints a bleak picture of the damages presented by climate change, climate scientists began calling for immediate action.

“Ultimately, what it comes down to is that we need to dramatically reduce emissions and stop burning fossil fuels,” Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy at the Cambridge-based Union of Concerned Scientists, told the Boston Globe in an article this week.

The report out on Monday from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says Earth has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius since the preindustrial era and is rapidly approaching a 1.5-degree threshold that the Paris Accord was designed to prevent.

Frumhoff and other scientist are urging lawmakers and regulators to enact laws and rules that would, according to the Globe article:

  • Reduce carbon emissions by half what they were in 2010 by the end of the decade;
  • Stop the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and gas, and ramp up the use of clean energy;
  • Reduce the consumption of beef and dairy products;
  • Impose a tax or other fees on carbon pollution;
  • Encourage farmers to better manage their soil and land;
  • Prepare for the unavoidable impacts that will happen no matter what policymakers do, including sea levels rising, more intense storms, greater flooding and increased droughts;

Aon Report

Extreme precipitation in mid-July resulted in the costliest flooding events on record for German and Chinese insurers, which face potential losses of $6.5 billion and $1.7 billion, respectively, a monthly catastrophe report from Aon shows.

Germany is likely to see as much as $20 billion in direct economic damage, while the country’s insurers could see losses of €4.5 billion to €5.5 billion ($5.3 billion to $6.5 billion), which would be the costliest individual natural disaster for the German insurance industry on record, a story on the report in Insurance Journal states.

Total economic losses in Europe for the flooding were expected to approach $25 billion, while overall, the event is likely to rank as the costliest weather event and second-costliest natural disaster event in Europe in the past 40 years.

Catastrophic damage occurred across Western Germany, predominantly in Nordrhein-Westfalen and Rheinland-Pfalz federal states, with the official death toll listed at 197, while the worst affected area was the Ahr River Valley, where the majority of fatalities occurred. Belgium recorded its deadliest and costliest flooding event in its history, according to the Aon report.

Historic rainfall prompted catastrophic flash flooding across China’s Henan Province from in mid-July, killing at least 302 people and injuring many others. The flooding generated extensive damage to property, agriculture and infrastructure across the region, with significant impacts incurred in the Zhengzhou metro area on July 20 as all-time rainfall records were broken, according to the report.

Swiss Re Report

Severe weather events drove global insured catastrophe losses of $42 billion in first half of 2021, according to recent Swiss Re Institute estimates.

Winter storm Uri caused an estimated $15 billion insured losses in the U.S., the highest ever recorded for this peril in the country, according to Swiss Re.

These winter storms, intense heatwaves and severe flooding around the globe signal the “growing risks from secondary perils, fueled by rapid urban development and climate change,” the report states.

According to Swiss Re Institute’s preliminary sigma estimates, the cat losses are above the previous one-year average of $33 billion and the second highest on record for a first half after 2011, when major earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand pushed the six-month total to $104 billion.

Man-made disasters triggered another estimated $2 billion of insured losses in the first half this year, less than usual and likely reflecting remaining COVID-19 restrictions, according to the report.

Martin Bertogg, Head of Cat Perils at Swiss Re, stated: “The effects of climate change are manifesting in warmer temperatures, rising sea levels, more erratic rainfall patterns and greater weather extremes. Taken together with rapid urban development and accumulation of wealth in disaster-prone areas, secondary perils, such as winter storms, hail, floods or wildfires, lead to ever higher catastrophe losses. The experience so far in 2021 underscores the growing risks of these perils, exposing ever larger communities to extreme climate events.”

Global economic losses from disaster events are estimated at $77 billion in the first half of 2021, below average for the past 10 years ($108 billion). The economic loss figure is expected to rise as more losses are accounted for in the coming months.

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