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Weather Insurance Allianz, Europe’s biggest insurance
group, plans to exploit interest in environmental issues among the
financial community with a division to produce climate-related
products for its bank and insurance businesses.
The German group has set up Allianz Climate Solutions to meet
rising demand for weather insurance and climate-related financial
instruments, highlighting the industry’s hunt for opportunities as
public interest in weather-related issues grows. |
By Ivar Simensen in Frankfurt November 4 2007found at http://www.ft.com
“Greater awareness of climate issues such as global warming is creating
new opportunities,” said Armin Sandhoevel, the division’s chief
executive.
“The group has been set up to meet this rising demand amid the
realisation that the world needs more and better renewable energy, clean
technologies and power markets.”
The interest in and potential to profit from concern about climate change
has led to new investment products for retail markets, environment-focused
stock indices, and investment in trading opportunities such as those with
emissions credits.
Allianz’s climate division is not the group’s first move in the area.
Dresdner Bank, Allianz’s banking subsidiary, entered a joint venture
with Gazprombank of Russia to invest in the rapidly developing carbon
emissions trading market at the beginning of the year.
The venture invests in projects that generate CO2
certificates through the Kyoto protocol and repackage them to resell to
investors.
The climate arm will search for similar opport-unities.
The move reflects the strategy of Michael Diekmann, Allianz chief
executive, to create a one-stop-shop to get more out of the company’s
various divisions.
Mr Sandhoevel said his team was a group of 10 people, most of them
recruited internally from across the group, to search for investment
opportunities and products ranging from car insurance to renewable energy
fund investment and tradable assets.
He said the team could more than double in size in the next two years,
depending on its success.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

Falaknaaz Syed / Mumbai November 06, 2007 found at business-standard.com
Farmers will no longer have to wait endlessly for claiming their payments from
the government.
A weather-based crop insurance scheme (WBCIS) is being launched in various states as a pilot project through the state-owned Agriculture Insurance Company (AIC), and two private insurers, ICICI Lombard General Insurance and Iffco-Tokio General Insurance.
The scheme provides insurance protection against potential crop losses due to adverse deviations in rainfall, frost, heat, wind speed, relative humidity and various weather factors that have an impact on crop productivity.
Weather risks are covered from sowing to maturity of the crop and the sum insured is equivalent to the cost of cultivation. The claims to farmers will be paid within 45 days from the end of the risk period. The risk period for Kharif season starts from April and ends in September, while for Rabi, the risk period starts from November.
The state and central governments will subsidise the premium 50:50 for WBCIS. Farmers will have to pay 2.5-3 per cent of the premium for Kharif (food and oilseed crops) and 1.5-2 per cent for crops in rabi season. The claims will be fully paid by AIC.
Speaking about the advantages of WBCIS, AIC chairman, M Parshad said, “WBCIS is a more transparent scheme compared to the present National Agriculture Insurance Scheme. The premium for WBCIS is subsidised by the government which we receive in advance. Secondly, weather data, which is the basic determinant in paying a claim, can be processed real time and there is no time lag. Thirdly, there is no human intervention as the data is recorded automatically.”
For launching the pilot for Rabi season, the insurer has completed discussions with seven state governments and have identified 250 locations and six crops. The states are: Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Haryana and Punjab.
The subisdy for the entire year is Rs 100 crore. The estimated sum insured is around Rs 1500 crore. The pilot for kharif has been completed in Karnataka. Out of the total 770 hoblis, 70 hoblis were covered for weather-based deficiency and excess rainfall.
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