ClimateWise, a group of insurance companies worldwide including South AFrican insurers like Santam and Alliance Insurance Co, is urging the governments of developed countries to reduce their carbon emissions by 40
percent in 2020, from 1990 levels, to help avert global warming.
“The climate crisis poses a systemic risk to the global
economy,” the organisation said in Cape Town, South Africa, during a conference hosted by the United
Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The event focuses on financing
programs to protect the environment.
"We need “an ambitious,
robust and equitable global deal that responds credibly to the
scale and urgency of the crisis facing humanity today,” ClimateWise said in a statement, one month and a half before climate change summit in Copenhagen.
“We want to extend insurance to as broad a part of the
population as possible,” Andrew Torrance, chief executive
officer of Alliance Insurance Co. and chairman of ClimateWise,
said. “Without adequate action
being taken in Copenhagen, property in many more parts of the
world could become uninsurable.”
“The industry operates off annual contracts” and can
stop insuring unacceptable risk, Torrance added. “Economically
the insurance industry can manage the potential risks of
climate change down the road. There is no question of the
industry being in danger of collapsing as a result of climate
change.”
UNEP and Standard Bank Group have also announced that they had jointly started a
project aimed at developing Africa’s carbon market. The Africa
Carbon Development Facility will provide targeted grants,
technical assistance and training.
“Despite the explosive growth of the carbon market
worldwide, Africa has not yet substantially benefited,” UNEP
energy economist Glenn Hodes said in a statement. “Its share of
the UN-regulated carbon credit market has held steady at around
3 percent. Even without any additional stimulus, the 112
projects currently in process would create 85 million carbon
credits worth over $1.2 billion by 2012.”
Source:
Bloomberg
