Risk and approaches to insurance in the context of the UNFCCC

A variety of public and private insurance tools may be used to transfer risk resulting from extreme weather events associated with climate change. This paper will consider how combinations of risk transfer and collective loss-sharing tools are used both in and through existing international civil liability and compensation regimes, to address transboundary environmental harm from ultra-hazardous, hazardous and dangerous activities. The most prominent of these regimes have developed in connection with risks from nuclear damage, oil spills, transportation of dangerous and hazardous goods, and the pollution of watercourses through industrial accidents. Then, the paper will introduce how insurance tools are used within these existing regimes to transfer and share risk and losses and present the tiered compensation systems currently used in these regimes to redistribute risk. This is done to allow consideration of how similar concepts might be used to address transboundary damage resulting from climate change. Finally, the nuclear third party liability regime in Romania shall be described and the way Societatea Nationala 'Nuclearelectrica' S.A. - the key player and promoter of Romanian nuclear industry development - developed and placed a nuclear insurance program. (author)