SAN FRANCISCO–Insurers and environmentalists attending a meeting of insurance regulators here clashed yesterday over the issue of how insurers should respond to challenges posed by global warming.

At the closing session of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners summer meeting, industry representatives resisted entreaties that a series of interrogatories related to global warming should be part of the annual statement filed by insurers.

Robert Detlefsen, public policy director for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, told the NAIC's Climate Change and Global Warming Task Force that insurers are focusing on the issues caused by changing weather patterns that have been observed cyclically for decades.

They are not, he said, looking at whether “minute” changes in average temperatures are leading to global meltdown.

Mr. Detlefsen also told the task force that auditors and accountants prepare the financial statement and do not have expertise in issues surrounding global climate change.

“The tone of the [proposed] interrogatories is fused with a kind of adversary legalism like a group of attorneys looking to play 'gotcha,'” Mr. Detlefsen said.

The suggested interrogatories would seek data on insurers' assessment on the impact of climate change. They would also ask for data on what underwriting actions carriers are taking to account for the effects of global warming, such as raising rates or cancelling policies in geographic regions affected by climate change.

Andrew Logan, director of oil and insurance programs for CERES consultants, said companies in the energy and other sectors have been responsive to such queries over the years while insurance remains one of the last holdouts in the effort.

“Insurers' actions on climate change have been quite shallow,” he said.

Elizabeth Costle, representing the National Resources Defense Council, said global warming will result in chronic conditions such as droughts and wildfires that may not involve an instant catastrophe but produce serious losses over a given time.

“The federal government has been out in front on this, and as state regulators you don't want to have to take a back seat,” said Ms. Costle, a former Vermont commissioner, making her first visit to the NAIC in her civilian capacity.

Montana Commissioner John Morrison responded with a chuckle, “You really know how to hit where it hurts.”

David Snyder, assistant general counsel for the American Insurance Association, said the insurance industry has taken global warming seriously, but questioned the wisdom and even the propriety of putting the proposed questions in the annual statement.

Task Force Chair and Nebraska Commissioner Tim Wagner said the panel's goal is to produce a white paper at the end of the year which will lay out a series of options the regulators could take with respect to global warming.

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