Swiss Re climate specialist on TV

Filming Gerry Lemcke for The Great Warming documentary


Gerry Lemcke, climatologist at Swiss Re, speaks about the impact of climate change risk on reinsurance.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gerry Lemcke has been working for Swiss Re America Holding out of Armonk as deputy head of the Catastrophe Perils Unit since 2002. There, a team of eight people – all trained natural scientists – are working closely with the Chief Underwriting Office in Zurich, where another group of some 20 experts are working on all aspects of natural disasters. Mainly focused on earthquake, winter storms, tropical storms and flood, the team develops risk assessment programs and models supporting underwriting, and, last but not least, is involved in optimizing Swiss Re's own book of catastrophe business.

Gerry’s focus is on all kind of atmospheric perils, mainly in the Americas and the Caribbean. “Just recently, we finalized Swiss Re's very first fully event-based risk assessment program for tropical cyclones. It includes roughly 100,000 artificially generated tropical storms for the Atlantic basin, to allow for a much more precise risk assessment”, he says. Other projects look into the risk of tornado, hail and winter storms.


Gerry, what was your input for the TV documentary The Great Warming?

I was asked to look at the very initial script, and was able to shape the series within the boundaries of my area of expertise as one of Swiss Re’s spokespersons on climate change. Given Swiss Re’s broad expertise within the Catastrophe Perils Unit and Group Sustainability Management, we were able to advise on the scientific content. We did so mainly to make sure the series is balanced and touches on the manifold aspects of global warming and global climate change, rather than just focus on the most prominent ones such as the increase in climate catastrophes (e.g. tropical cyclones).

I was then also part of the actual filming, where it was important to get the message out in a scientifically correct but easy-to-understand way. I really do like working with the moviemakers; it’s a completely different profession from mine, which broadens the personal horizon.


How important an issue is climate change in the US?

From a perspective clearly biased towards scientific research and advances made in climate modelling and prediction, I do see a growing concern. The media, and with it the public, seem to realize that something is changing in the area of the potential results of global warming: bush fires, tornadoes, blizzards, tropical storms. It’s felt that weather related catastrophes are a growing hazard. Irrespective of whether this is being caused by an actual increase in weather related events or simply due to the fact that more and more people are living in high risk areas, thus pushing losses higher, this is recognized as something "out of the norm". As a consequence, there also is growing demand for insurance products like weather derivatives.

The issue however is still less prominent in North America than it is in Europe, however. This is one reason why I believe this TV series comes at the right time in the right country. 

 

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