FERMA Press Release "Climate Change at the Forum"

1. Press release
23 September 2013
Climate change a pressing issue for risk managers
Analysing and mitigating the effects of climate change, such as
floods and windstorms, have become pressing issues for risk
managers, according to Gaëtan Lefèvre, chairman of the
Belgian risk management association BELRIM.
Gaëtan is the moderator of a workshop on climate change at
the Risk Management Forum of the Federation of European
Risk Management Associations (FERMA), which will begin on
29 September in Maastricht.
He says, “We see how natural catastrophes are changing,
becoming more severe. The problem is moving from the
scientific understanding of what is happening to the climate
and translating it into a risk management application in
business. But it is a pressing issue for risk managers to analyse
their company‟s exposures and what mitigation measures are
possible.”
In Europe, the main climate related risks are from floods and
windstorms, Gaëtan explains. Flood is especially relevant in
Belgium, and in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands even
some companies find it very difficult to get flood insurance.
For most companies, the business interruption consequences
of these perils are likely to be more serious financially than
physical damage, but highly regulated industries such as
pharmaceuticals and chemicals can have major losses to their
property or from pollution.
Even without the influence of climate change, the floods in
Thailand and earthquake and tsunami in Japan, both in 2011,

2. really made businesses aware of interdependences, how
complex the links are between businesses, and how
widespread the losses can be when something like this
happens, Gaëtan comments.
The workshop at the Forum will begin with a presentation of
climate change science by Professor Lucka Kajfez Bogata,
Climatology Professor at the University of Ljubljana. Professor
Bogata has been a member of working groups in the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
There will then be an introduction to „cindynics‟, known as the
science of danger, as a method for approaching the multiple
interactions that create the climate and its relationship with
human activity.
Insurers will consider two aspects of climate change: first, how
they see it as a risk and how as an opportunity and integrate
that into their policies, and second, how it affects their views
on insurability.
Workshop participants will be able to put their questions to all
four speakers.
For more information on the workshop, see:
http://www.ferma.eu/ferma-forum-2013/sessions/workshops4/climate-change-new-approaches/
For full details of the event:http://www.ferma.eu/ferma-forum2013/
Press contact
FERMA welcomes journalists to the Forum. Contact Lee
Coppack, FERMA media coordinator, at lee@coppack.co.uk
Tel to 27 September: +44 208 318 0330
From 27 September and onsite: +44 7843 089904.
About FERMA
The Federation of European Risk Management Associations
(FERMA) brings together 22 national risk management
associations in 20 European countries. FERMA has 4,200
individual members representing a wide range of business
sectors from major industrial and commercial companies to
financial institutions and local government bodies. These
members play a crucial role for their organisations with

3. respect to the management and treatment of complex risks
and insurance issues.
Member associations are from the following countries:
Belgium (BELRIM), Czech Republic (ASPAR CZ), Denmark
(DARIM), Finland (FinnRiMa), France (AMRAE), Germany
(DVS/BfV), Italy (ANRA), Luxembourg (ALRiM), Malta
(MARM), Netherlands (NARIM), Norway (NORIMA), Poland
(POLRISK), Portugal (APOGERIS), Russia (RusRisk), Slovenia
(Sl.RISK), Spain (AGERS and IGREA), Sweden (SWERMA),
Switzerland (SIRM), Turkey (ERMA) and United Kingdom
(Airmic).