Climate Week NYC kicks off

Climate Week NYC began Sept. 24, with reinsurance giant Swiss Re and the province of Quebec two major sponsors behind the event.

Swiss Re is a founding sponsor of the global forum for businesses and governments to discuss tackling the major implications of climate change.

Climate Week’s first event included speeches from former British prime minister Tony Blair, Prince Albert of Monaco and Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, along with Swiss Re America chairman Walter Bell and other prominent businesspeople.

“The recent weather events were tremendous and had a tremendous human and economic toll across the globe,” Bell said. “When you look at 2011, there was about $130 billion of economic loss during that time, yet only $60 billion of that loss was covered by insurance. You’ve got the insurer of last resort – basically government and other political jurisdictions – that have to come in and pick up the difference between these, which puts extreme pressures on the taxpayers of those jurisdictions.”

During the event, international non-profit The Climate Group (which is also the Secretariat of Climate Week NYC) called on the next United States federal administration to make climate change issues a greater priority in its economic strategy.

It also released a new report, An American Clean Revolution, which includes information on energy security and sustainability for future years. The report also calls for “a reinvigorated, bi-partisan, public-private partnership of government and corporate leaders in support of low carbon entrepreneurship.”

Climate Week NYC is now in its fourth year.

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