Danish insurers claim climate change is pushing up premiums

Danish insurance companies are planning to force up insurance premiums on the grounds that climate change is costing them money.

Jyllands-Posten has revealed that insurers are in fact exaggerating the financial impact of torrential rain and storms in order to boost their coffers: weather damages to date have been exposed as only a minor part of out-payments.

Stine Bosse, the CEO of insurer TyrgVesta, said that costs to insurance companies as a direct result of climate change are forecasted to spiral well into the billions, with flooding, storms and heavy rains all attributing to higher customer premiums. Some insurers are suggesting that weather related damages will see costs rise by between 25 and 50 percent.

Closer investigation of insurance payouts over recent years shows a different story however, with damage attributed to climate factors being a very minor part of the total payouts on personal property and building insurance claims.

From 2006 to 2008, the total cost for climate-related payments due to storms and torrential rain cost on average just seven percent of the annual insurance payouts, a figure of DKK 618 million out of a total of DKK 8.8 billion.

According to Jyllands-Posten, even with the worst of doomsday scenarios, annual climate change increases to the Danish insurance sector would only amount to DKK 300 million.