Higher insurance premiums: blame climate change?(up front: News / Trends / Advice)(home, motor insurance)

Coming soon to your mailbox: higher bills for home and auto insurance, larger deductibles, and more restrictions, courtesy of global climate change. That's the conclusion of a recent report commissioned by Ceres, a coalition of institutional investors and environmental groups in the U.S. and Europe. "Insurance as we know it is threatened by a perfect storm of rising weather events," says Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres.

The report found that insured losses from weather-related disasters in the U.S. have increased 15-fold in the last 30 years, more than at any other time on record. Losses from natural disasters have outpaced population growth and inflation, so they can't be attributed solely to people who have placed themselves and their property in harm's way. International climate experts envision more, and more-severe disturbances, including windstorms, hailstorms, and droughts.

You may soon feel the effect, if you haven't already. The report predicts that insurance will become less available and less affordable as the costs of disasters challenge insurers' ability to pay. (Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma caused an estimated $55 billion to $75 billion in insured property losses, according to Robert Hartwig, chief economist of the Insurance Information Institute, an industry research and public-relations group.) The gradual transfer of risk back to consumers and governments in the form of higher premiums, higher deductibles, and government-backed high-risk pools is likely, the report said. Insurance shortages also may occur: After 2004's ...