NU Online News Service, Sept. 30, 3:39 p.m. EDT

The private sector has a stake in understanding the impact of climate change, especially as it comes to evaluating risk, the president of the Reinsurance Association of America (RAA) noted during a press conference Wednesday.

Yesterday, the National Climate Adaptation Summit released its report based on meetings it held in late May with a group of scientists, policymakers and regional leaders "on national and regional preparations for adapting to a changing climate."

Frank Nutter, president of the RAA, speaking at yesterday's press conference, said insurers tend to focus on the developed environment, but "we recognize increasingly, that the natural habitat, the natural environment, is very much part of the business activity that our industry needs to focus on."

The report states that as it becomes increasingly clear that climate change has taken hold of our environment, the need to deal with those changes as the result of increased greenhouse gases is inescapable.

"There was a strong consensus among participants that wise adaptation measures can help minimize the negative impacts of a changing climate on our nation's communities, businesses, ecosystems and citizens," the report notes.

Mr. Nutter said there are four aspects of the report that would be of most benefit to the private sector.

Among the recommendations coming out of the summit is the creation of a federal climate information portal. Mr. Nutter said while federal officials--notably the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration--have tried to make its data usable to the private sector, it has been a struggle for the private sector to utilize it. This is especially true concerning data on the opportunity to focus on the development of high risk property exposures.

"The opportunity, after these extreme events, to think about the redevelopment of these areas that are at high risk, is an opportunity as well, and the private sector and the public sector have a real opportunity here to look at future climate scenarios [to] think about future development options," he said.

The introduction of best practices is essential to developing sustainable business practices, he said. To achieve this goal there needs to be interaction between federal and state government and the private sector to understand what each are doing or could be doing, to achieve these goals.

Insurance is about assessing risk, Mr. Nutter said, and trying to assess the long term implications of climate change is very difficult, as opposed to assessing risk on past experience. The same holds true for the federal insurance entities, such as the National Flood Insurance and Crop Insurance programs. It would be advantageous to assess future risk if both the public and private sectors could work together on this issue.

When it comes to adapting to climate change, he said the local level is ahead of the feds on this issue, and the emphasis on the report to look at "local adaptation activities should be commended and placed as a priority."

The 26 page report, which was given to the President yesterday, identifies seven priorities that need action in the near term. Besides making information more available to both the public and private sectors, improving coordination and adaptation of best practices, the report calls on investing in more research to understand vulnerability and impact from climate change. The report also calls for the initiation of regional forums aimed at integrating "planning, communication, and coordination of activities across various agencies and U.S. regions."