How well prepared are businesses for climate change? How well prepared are insurers? It's going have a massive impact on the bottom line of insurers warns Lloyds of London in a new report Climate Change: Adapt or Bust .

And reading through the report, the message comes through that they better get ready to start reacting quickly.



Consider this: "As climate change causes temperatures to rise further, insurers should be prepared for increased frequency of extreme storms not just in the Atlantic but around the world, as record typhoon seasons in Asia also show. Warmer sea surface temperatures also appear to make windstorm landfall more likely. This combinations means that particularly destructive storms are a likely scenario.

On the question of rising seas, it says: "The trend is probably irreversible and certainly unpredictable, likely to result in sudden periods of catastrophic melting. If the level were to rise in excess of four metres almost every coastal city in the world would be inundated, with severely negative implications for economic and political systems, and a severe impact on the commercial insurance market. Even small rises in sea levels are likely to create severe economic and demographic problems, since large populations are concentrated near present sea level."

No surprises then that more businesses are starting to take climate seriously, reports The Economist.

As the piece points out, it remains to be seen whether customers are prepared to pay the price.