Thursday, May 6, 2010

Global Insurer's take on Climate change (2005)

"The first impact scenario, or CCF-I, portrays a world with an increased correlation and geographical simultaneity of extreme events, generating an overwhelming strain for some stakeholders."

"Taken in aggregate, these and other effects of a warming and more variable climate could threaten economies worldwide. In CCF-I, some parts of the developed world may be capable of responding to the disruptions, but the events would be particularly punishing for developing countries. For the world over, historical weather patterns would diminish in value as guides to forecasting the future."



"The second impact scenario, CCF-II, envisions a world in which the warming and enhanced variability produce surprisingly destructive consequences."

"Some of the impacts envisioned by the second scenario are very severe and would involve catastrophic, widespread damages, with a world economy beset by increased costs and chronic, unmanageable risks. Climate-related disruptions would no longer be contained or confined."

"CCF-II would involve blows to the world economy sufficiently severe to cripple the resilience that enables affluent countries to respond to catastrophes. In effect, parts of developed countries would experience developing nation conditions for prolonged periods as a result of natural catastrophes and increasing vulnerability due to the abbreviated return times of extreme events.

Still, CCF-II is not a worst-case scenario.
 
 

A worst-case scenario would include large-scale, nonlinear disruptions in the climate system itself —  slippage of ice sheets from Antarctica or Greenland, raising sea levels inches to feet; accelerated thawing of permafrost, with release of large quantities of methane; and shifts in ocean thermohaline circulation (the stabilizing ocean “conveyor belt”)."

http://www.climatechangefutures.org/pdf/CCF_Report_Final_10.27.pdf

Sponsored by Swiss Re "Leading Global Reinsurer" "with focus on risk transfer, risk retention financing, and asset management"


Does that worst case scenario sound familiar??

 

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