The reality of climate change can no longer be ignored by U.S.policymakers, according to the chairman of Lloyd's of London, whowarned that coordinated action needs to be taken by government andbusiness to save future generations.

"We cannot risk being in denial on catastrophe trends. Weurgently need a radical rethinking of public policy, and to buildthe facts into future planning," Lord Peter Levene said in a recentspeech in Washington, D.C., to the World Affairs Council.

The number of natural catastrophes has doubled since the 1960s,while at the same time, insured losses have increased nearlysevenfold--most of them weather related, he noted. The worstinsurance year on record came in 2005, with total global insuranceclaims of $83 billion--with over 80 percent from U.S. hurricanes,he added.

"Over the coming years, with warmer sea surface temperaturesmaking landfall more likely, particularly destructive storms are alikely scenario," said Lord Levene. "We can expect the storm seasonto lengthen, and we will be at risk over a wider geographical areathan ever before."

There is a growing acknowledgement among insurers that globalclimate change is playing an adverse role, according to LordLevene. "We need to take coordinated action on climate change," heurged.

However, he was critical of current U.S. policy, holdinggovernment, the business community and individual citizensresponsible for not taking the prospects of global warmingseriously.

"Society must make some tough decisions and be prepared tochange its behavior," he said. "Here in Washington, does the willand the commitment exist to encourage that process?"

Changing subjects, he was equally critical of talk that wouldpunish the profitability of the insurance industry with a windfalltax, suppress rates, or "otherwise rein-in a so-called 'greedy'industry."

The insurance industry, by its cyclical nature, enjoys shortperiods of profitability between long periods of losses, which actas a restorative period to allow the industry to catch up with itsclaims, the Lloyd's chairman noted.

Such talk about containing industry profitability in the face ofpotentially prolonged and severe losses from future catastrophescould profoundly damage the industry's ability to provide capitalfor rebuilding after a major disaster, he warned.

"Ultimately," he said, "we cannot put the financial health ofthe insurance industry--and therefore the consumers theyrepresent--at risk due to the demands of politicians whose viewsmay be clouded by the need to attract votes."

Lord Levene said Lloyd's is taking steps to address climatechange by investing in new scientific research in the United Statesand the United Kingdom. Lloyd's also insures new "greentechnology," including a third of insurance for waste-to-energyrecycling plants and a quarter of the world's wind farms, henoted.

"There is an important role which business can play, and thereis commercial benefit to be gained from doing so," said LordLevene.

With the insured value of properties in U.S. coastal areasdoubling over the last decade to more than $7 trillion, Lord Levenesaid insurers must push for action to limit the potential threat ofclimate change.

"Two years after [Hurricane] Katrina, and two years away from anational [U.S.] election, where's the public debate on catastrophetrends?" he challenged, noting that Lloyd's has recently developeda $100 billion loss scenario for a major windstorm hitting the U.S.Gulf or East Coast.