GRAPEVINE, TEXAS–A proposal by insurance regulators, that metstiff insurer opposition, to have carriers include data related toclimate change impacts in their Annual Statements has beenmodified, trade groups said.

Insurance organizations attending the National Association ofInsurance Commissioners winter meeting here said a compromise onthe issue may be in place for 2009.

Representatives of the American Council of Life Insurers,Washington; the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies,Indianapolis; and the Property Casualty Insurers Association ofAmerica (PCI), Des Plaines, Ill., said a new direction for filingsuch data could be established during a conference call of theClimate Change and Global Warming Task Force on Dec. 17.

The latest draft of the survey of climate change items was madepublic on Dec. 3. The document after the conference call would moveout of the task force chaired by Wisconsin Insurance CommissionerSean Dilweg and could possibly be voted on by the NAIC's executivecommittee by year end, the groups said.

Insurers' representatives said they are pleased that the newsurvey will not be part of the annual statement filing requirement,but rather a separate survey.

According to Robert Detlefsen, NAMIC vice president of publicpolicy, insurers will have to respond to eight questions andprovide them to the regulator in the company's domiciliary state.And, if a company has a number of subsidiaries, the regulator ofthe holding company's state would receive the information, Mr.Detlefsen added.

The original NAIC white paper on climate change said regulatorsshould ask insurers about climate risk in their internalrisk-assessment process, how they inform and provide incentives forpolicyholders to deal with climate risk, how insurer boards areinformed on climate risk, and what steps carriers are taking tomitigate their own and policyholders' climate risks.

Insurers said requiring filings forcing them to make statementsand hazard guesses would be an invitation for lawsuits.

Andrew Melnyk, ACLI's managing director of research, said thatremoval of the survey from the annual statement filing was apositive development. Other positives include the fact that thereis not a requirement for quantitative information and that thedocument is forward looking.

One change that insurers agreed to, he said, is that the eightquestions insurers answer will be public. Previously, insurerswould have been required to answer nine questions, three of whichwould have been public.

Mr. Melnyk said ACLI had contended that climate change reallydid not affect life insurers but said regulators had countered thatit could impact life insurers' investments and could affectmortality if there were extreme climate changes.

David Kodama, director of policy analysis for PCI, noted in astatement that the task force would not be taking action on thelatest climate data proposal until after a comment period and theinterim meeting/teleconference call of the Climate Risk DisclosureWorking Group.

“Though the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America(PCI) still questions the general regulatory relevance of suchdisclosure requirements, in terms of insurer solvency and consumerprotection, we do acknowledge the positive revisions to the latestdraft.

“The proposed disclosure via a state-conducted survey, ratherthan through a supplement to the annual statement filing, addressesa critical element of PCI's adamant opposition to prior versions,”he said.