From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   How an Insurer Helps a Shipper Stay Above Water   
   By Leslie Scism, June 2, 2023, WSJ   
   ELIZABETH, N.J.—Giant cranes overhead were stacking thousands of containers   
   on a 1,200-foot cargo ship, but a pair of engineers were looking down,   
   examining storm drains and asking where water flowed during rainstorms.   
      
   The engineers from Zurich Insurance Group ZURVY -0.61%decrease; red down   
   pointing triangle are trying to prevent serious damage from storms at A.P.   
   Moller-Maersk’s MAERSK.B -2.46%decrease; red down pointing triangle terminal   
   at the Port of New York and    
   New Jersey. The shipper and its insurer are aiming to mitigate risks made   
   worse by climate change.    
      
   Zurich and some other insurers with big fleets of engineers, including Chubb   
   and FM Global, are advising companies on how to fortify their properties   
   against expected higher sea levels, storm surges, fiercer wind storms,   
   wildfires and more intense    
   rainfall. This was the latest in a series of visits to Maersk’s shipping   
   operations worldwide by Zurich engineers.   
      
   The terminal, which sits behind an IKEA store and across the New Jersey   
   Turnpike from Newark Liberty International Airport, was closed for a week in   
   2012 due to flooding from a storm surge caused by superstorm Sandy. Storms   
   like Sandy are expected to be    
   more frequent and more intense, Zurich’s analysis for Maersk indicates.   
      
   Many insurers and businesses had a wake-up call on climate change in 2017 when   
   California wildfires and hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria made it one of the   
   costliest years ever for the global property-insurance industry. According to   
   broker Marsh’s    
   Global Insurance Market Index, U.S. commercial-property rates have risen   
   consistently for the past 22 quarters. In recent ones, inflation has been a   
   factor.   
      
   Zurich offers its engineers’ advice on current risks to its co   
   mercial-insurance customers. It sells longer-term climate analysis through its   
   two-year-old Zurich Resilience Solutions unit to both companies it insures and   
   those it doesn’t. Maersk, a    
   Zurich insurance client, sought analysis out to 2060.   
      
   In an earlier part of the Maersk assignment, Zurich’s engineers had focused   
   on the impact of wind to those tall cranes, including reviewing the   
   company’s plans for shutting them down. Their attention turned to where   
   torrential rains and storm surge    
   might cause future problems.     
      
   During Sandy, berths and piers were damaged in the port, and saltwater   
   intrusion knocked out electrical equipment and power transformers, leaving the   
   terminal without power.    
      
   So Nicolette Botha, Zurich Resilience Solutions’ senior risk engineer, was   
   trying to understand where water from a surge, or rainfall, would flow. She   
   asked workers where rainwater puddled and where crucial equipment was stored.   
   She took pictures of    
   storm drains, electrical switchgear, transformers and computer servers.   
      
   She also climbed onto the flat roof of the building where the servers are   
   housed to check its condition and drainage. She took note of how securely   
   heating and ventilation equipment was installed.   
      
   Even if a policyholder is fully covered for a loss, “it is much better to   
   prevent the claim to start with,” said Zurich Insurance Chief Executive   
   Officer Mario Greco. Zurich Resilience Solutions “is one of the   
   highest-growth businesses we have,”    
   he said, and the company has added staff “because of the demand in the   
   market.” The unit currently has more than 800 engineers.    
      
   In general, increased resiliency can help companies get better pricing than   
   otherwise, insurance executives and brokers said.   
      
   Copenhagen-based Maersk said it hired Zurich for the climate-change analysis   
   after the shipping company concluded that physical damage and bu   
   iness-interruption costs due to extreme weather were among its biggest risks.    
      
   At the New Jersey location, Botha said that her team expects to recommend such   
   things as elevating certain equipment, adding flood barriers to keep water   
   from entering buildings and replacing the roof she climbed onto to protect   
   against “wind uplift.”   
        
      
   Over the past 20 years working as an engineer for property insurers, Botha   
   said the job has changed dramatically. It now involves working with the   
   U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s projections “to look   
   at future risks, not just the    
   current risks…. A majority of our customers have an understanding they need   
   to do something.”   
      
   The insurers’ initiatives come as climate activists are targeting banks and   
   insurers to cut off financing and insurance coverage for fossil-fuel companies   
   as a way to reduce carbon emissions and slow the effects of climate change.    
      
   The activists have mixed feelings about the insurers’ efforts to lower risks   
   caused by climate change. “It is shortsighted and cynical for Zurich to   
   support their own customers in adapting to the climate crisis while they   
   continue to fuel the crisis    
   for society at large through their fossil-fuel underwriting,” said Peter   
   Bosshard, coordinator of a climate-activism campaign called Insure Our Future.   
      
   Many insurers say a wholesale quitting of sales to oil-and-gas producers would   
   put the world’s economy at risk, because renewable energy isn’t ready to   
   pick up the slack.   
      
   Sierra Signorelli, CEO Commercial Insurance at Zurich, said that the carrier   
   over the past decade has reduced its market share as a provider of insurance   
   to the fossil-fuel industry, and it restricts insurance for certain   
   fossil-fuel businesses while    
   expanding offerings for the renewable-energy sector. “We are committed to   
   aligning our business with a net-zero emissions economy,” Signorelli said.   
   “We strongly believe that the most effective way to achieve this is to work   
   with businesses from    
   all sectors as they adapt their business models.”   
      
   https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-an-insurer-helps-a-shipper-stay   
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