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Professor to Present Work on Global
Warming-Climate Change Risks Relating
to Insurance Industry

June 15, 2007

Professor Dan Anderson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business has been awarded a $10,000 stipend to travel to Germany this summer to present a paper on risk management as it relates to global warming and climate change to two of the world's leading international insurance organizations.

Anderson was given the stipend by the Geneva Association, Switzerland, and the International Insurance Society, Inc., New York to present his paper, “Sustainability Risk Management as a Critical Component of Enterprise Risk Management: Global Warming-Climate Change Risks.”

The paper focuses on global warming-climate change, one of the most discussed sustainability risk issues today. Global warming-climate change has become a major concern for the insurance industry. Although many corporations have exposure to global warming and climate change risks, the insurance industry is particularly vulnerable. Many companies are faced with insured property damages resulting from higher-intensity storms and hurricanes  associated with global warming. The insurance industry also is exposed to liability in terms of investment, life and health risks from global warming-climate change. Anderson's paper shows how mitigation strategies can reduce these risks, and  how incorporating sustainability risk management strategies can produce substantial business opportunities.

Anderson is one of three winners of the collaborative insurance research program who will present research during the International Insurance Society’s seminar in Berlin, Germany, this July. Other winners include: Jeungbo Shim, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Risk Management & Insurance, Georgia State University; and co-authors Shaun Yow, Boston Consulting Group, and Michael Sherris, School of Actuarial Studies, Faculty of Business, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Now in its third year, the insurance research program award was designed by the Geneva Association and the International Insurance Society to foster high-quality, practical research on current issues.

Anderson is the Leslie P. Schultz Professor of Risk Management and Insurance at the UW-Madison School of Business. Much of his research focuses on sustainability risk management issues. His recent book, "Corporate Survival: The Critical Importance of Sustainability Risk Management," examines rising sustainability risks.