Mr Nehemiah Neo, Managing Director, Insight Adjusters Group (Lloyd´s Agents, Singapore & Malaysia) and Regional Director for Asia, VRS Universe, looks at how climate change, the effects of global warming and the attempts to reduce our collective carbon footprint seem to be heading to the top of the insurance industry agenda these days.

The effects of greenhouse gas, the dramatic changes in weather conditions and the increase in natural catastrophes have forced the industry to look differently
at the whole problem.

Until recently, these concerns have been voiced by politicians, environmentalists and the insurance industry in the West, especially in the US and Europe.
Asia Has a Key Role

But it has quite recently dawned on those Western interests that the future of the planet in terms of how we respond to these challenges rests substantially on what will happen in Asia in the next few decades.
Politicians, lobbyists and insurance companies alike are realising that the global warming phenomenon, the gradual degradation of the ozone layer and how all those difficult environmental issues are resolved will depend significantly on how the industrialising giants of India and China react to the problem.
After all, this is where the most serious damage to the environment will likely occur in future. The whole issue of reducing humanity´s collective carbon footprint is a taxing question.