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Insurers among climate change signatories

Posted On: Feb. 21, 2007 12:00 AM CST

MUNICH, Germany— Several European insurers are among the some 100 companies that endorsed Tuesday a formal statement to fight against climate change caused by people and businesses.

Germany's Munich Reinsurance Co., Swiss Reinsurance Co. in Zurich, and Munich-based Allianz S.E. are among the members of the Global Roundtable on Climate Change, formed in 2004 to explore issues critical to shaping public and industry policy on climate change, according to a spokeswoman for the group.

Launched by Jeffrey Sachs, professor of economics and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York, the GRoCC is a committee of high ranked experts from numerous international companies and organizations.

In the statement, the international community is called upon to work together in order to bring about a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. A central point of the signatories' proposal is the establishment of a global market price mechanism for CO2 emissions.

The signatories themselves pledge to pursue sustainable development and to limit their own greenhouse gas emissions.

"In the long term, global warming will lead to a further increase in weather-related natural catastrophes, the financial impact of which will have to be borne by insurers and the public," said Munich Re Board Member Torsten Jeworrek in a press release. "Rapid international action is called for, and the GRoCC declaration is intended to provide an impulse."