Insurers must address global climate change as they cope with the growing cost of extreme natural disasters, said Lord Peter Levene, chairman of Lloyd's.

“We cannot risk being in denial on catastrophe trends,” said Levene in a speech to the World Affairs Council at the National Press Club in Washington. “We urgently need a radical rethink of public policy, and to build the facts into future planning.”

Levene said the number of natural catastrophes has doubled since the 1960s. At the same time, insured losses have increased nearly seven-fold, most of them weather-related. The worst year on record came in 2005 with total global insurance claims of $83 billion - over 80% from US hurricanes.

With the insured value of properties in US coastal areas doubling over the last decade to more than $7 trillion, Levene said insurers must push for action to limit the potential threat of climate change.