Editorial Insurance Law and Economics Research for Natural Hazard Management in a Changing Climate

Natural disaster risk is increasing globally as a result of socio-economic development and climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has clearly highlighted this duality of causation in its latest special report on extreme events.1 “The impacts of climate extremes and the potential for disasters result from the climate extremes themselves and from the exposure and vulnerability of human and natural systems. Observed changes in climate extremes reflect the influence of anthropogenic climate change in addition to natural climate variability, with changes in exposure and vulnerability influenced by both climatic and non climatic factors”. The IPCC emphasises that “Increasing exposure of people and economic assets has been the major cause of long-term increases in economic losses from weather- and climate-related disasters. Settlement patterns, urbanisation and changes in socio-economic conditions have all influenced observed trends in exposure and vulnerability to climate extremes”.2 On the other hand, the IPCC strongly agrees that a role for climate change in the past and into the future cannot be excluded. Exposure, in this report, is defined as the presence of people; livelihoods; environmental services an