NU Online News Service, Nov. 28, 3:30 p.m.EST

Insurers can play a vital role in the development of renewableenergy by producing risk-transfer programs and making corporateinvestments themselves, says insurer Munich Re.

As world representatives meet this week in Durban, South Africa,the Munich, Germany-based company released a statement urginginsurers and nations to work at finding ways to limit the negativeimpact of global warming on the environment.

Munich Re says it is making an effort to “boost the campaignbeing waged on global warming despite the stalled U.N. climatenegotiations.”

As part of that effort, the company is urging nations that haveadopted climate goals to take the lead and “concentrate all theirefforts on promoting renewable energy.”

Torsten Jeworrek, chief executive officer of reinsuranceoperations at Munich Re, says, “Switching from fossil fuels torenewable energy is the prime task this century faces and [theinitiative] offers substantial financial opportunities.”

He adds that insurers “can help facilitate the introduction ofthis technology” by making “specific investments and givinginvestors greater security.”

Munich Re notes that it has brought a number of “innovativesolutions to market,” including a performance guarantee that coversphotovoltaic modules and geothermal drilling projects.

The company says it will invest €2.5 billion ($3.33 billion)directly into renewable-energy projects over the next couple ofyears.

Munich Re says there is strong evidence that global warming ishaving a significant impact on weather conditions and the lossesinsurers suffer. The company's 40 years worth of data documentingnatural disasters now contains over 30,000 events.

The data shows the “number of registered-loss occurrences fromextreme weather throughout the world has almost tripled since1980.”

Flood-loss events have risen by a factor of more than three andthe number of windstorm catastrophes has more than doubled, saysthe company.

Loss increase can be explained in a socio-economic context,Munich Re says, with increases in population, property values andsettlement patterns. But the number of weather-related catastrophescan not be explained “without climate change.”

This is especially true as the “number of earthquakes, volcaniceruptions and other geophysical events has only increasedslightly.”

Despite the efforts by some nations to contain global warming,Munich Re says scientists believe rising carbon emissions havereached a point where the 2-degree Celsius target to contain globalwarming is virtually no longer attainable.

“Based on the latest scientific findings, little doubt remainsabout anthropogenic climate change and its impacts,” says MunichRe.