AS THE earth grows warmer, the battlebetween insurance and energyindustries is heating up. The insuranceexecutives have teamed up withinternational climate change experts.Around 60 big insurance companiesmet recently in London to chalkout ways of improving the management of environmental risks thatare costing their businesses hugeamounts of money. The insurance executives have adopted a paper seeking "asubstantial reduction" in the green-house gas emissions which trap heatin the atmosphere and add to global warming.
The paper comes at the right timefor climate change experts wholaunched a report recently, which highlights the influence of human beings onglobal warming. The largest contribution to global warming is made by carbon dioxide generated mainly by burning of fossil fuels.
The World Energy Council, whichrepresents the energy industries of 100countries, has dismissed the report'sfindings as unreliable. According to theUnited Nations Environment Programme, a co-sponsor of the conference,"Sixteen one-billion dollar-plus catastrophes linked to the environmentresulted in worldwide insured losses ofover us $50 billion".