Philippines considers insurance against climate change

Business Mirror (Philippines): Climate-risk insurance solutions can reduce the financial risks from an increasing number of natural catastrophes in the Philippines, according to Presidential Adviser on Global Warming and Climate Change Secretary Heherson Alvarez.

Alvarez said a delegation report to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo expounds on what the Philippines needs—an insurance-related system to help poorer countries manage weather-related risks. The insurance being pushed by Switzerland has been submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Alvarez headed the Philippine Delegation to the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland from December 1 to 12. “Climate risk insurance as a viable option for dampening the negative effects of global warming,” Alvarez told the BusinessMirror. “The Philippines is pushing for consideration of risk sharing and transfer mechanisms, such as climate risk insurance to address loss and damage in the Philippines [which] is vulnerable to climate change.”

…The Swiss government has proposed that developed countries with a global levy of $2.00 per ton of carbon dioxide emitted should commit to the insurance, he explained. He added that 60 percent of the fund would be retained by the country taxed, and 40 percent to a Multilateral Adaptation Fund for relief and rehabilitation of affected communities.

…Philippines came in at number 10 in the list of countries that suffered the impact of extreme weather events from 1997 to 2007.