Legislators To Insurers: Act On Global Warming

NU Online News Service, Nov. 20, 11:44 a.m. EST?Two New York legislators in advance of a public hearing urged insurers today to convince business interests they should act to prevent global warming.

"The insurance industry needs to use its very real influence to get the private sector moving to deal with this threat, while we can still do something about it," said Pete Grannis, D-Manhattan, chairman of the New York Assembly Insurance Committee.

Mr. Grannis' remarks came in a statement released prior to a hearing in New York City with Assemblyman Thomas P. DiNapoli, D-Nassau, who heads the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee. The session took place at New York University.

Their proceedings, the pair said in a release, would hear from insurance industry representatives, scientists and other experts concerning the future financial impacts of global warming on New York and the business world.

Mr. DiNapoli said that "Eco-systems and economic systems alike are going to suffer as a result of global warming and New York State needs to take steps now to diminish the impending impacts."

The assemblymen said their proceedings would hear testimony that the New York-New Jersey- Connecticut metro area's $1 trillion in infrastructure assets could sustain losses of up to $150 billion from a single storm event provoked by global warming.

Also referenced by the pair was a United Nations Environmental Programme Finance Initiatives Climate Change Working Group report, which found worldwide global warming costs will exceed $150 billion a year in the coming decade. The assemblymen said the report was prepared in consultation with several insurance companies.

Among the witnesses scheduled to testify was Christopher Walker, managing director Greenhouse Gas Risk Solutions, Swiss Re Financial Services Corp.

In a statement Mr. Walker said the issue is no longer whether the climate is changing "but how the occurring climate change will affect our existence, what conclusions can be drawn from it and what can be done to mitigate its impact."