Coastalsurvey

A report released Tuesday said that a four-degree rise in global temperatures could raise the costs of flood insurance in the UK by 14 percent. The average losses from climate-effected windstorms could rise by 25 percent in Britain, the report stated.

The Maldives are at risk of disappearing under rising waters.

The report, titled The Financial Risks of Climate Change was produced for the Association of British Insurers by risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide and the Met Office, the British national weather agency. Using current climate and insurance catastrophe models, it examined the financial implications of temperature increases on the insured cost of flood and windstorm damage in the UK, and of typhoons in China. For example, based on a global temperature rise of 4C, China could see average annual losses from typhoons jump by 32%, the report said.

Global warming is expected to influence the pattern and intensity of rainfall, winds and storms in the future. This means the amount and area covered by flooding and storm damage is likely to change. See the Met Office’s primer on climate change for more.

The publishing of the report is timely. In a little more than a month, world leaders will reconvene in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. This is the 15th such conference since the United Nations held the first climate talks in Rio de Janeiro in June of 1992.