Industry chief sounds alarm on climate-insurance obligation

(ANSA) - BOLOGNA, SEP 23 - Emanuele Orsini, the president of Italian industry association Confindustria, on Monday warned that there will be devastating consequences for business if the government presses ahead with plans to make it obligatory for firms to be insured for climate-related extreme-weather events.
    "It could become a big problem," Orsini said.
    "In the territories where there are problems (with extreme-weather events), industrialists may stop investing.
    "That would amount to desertifying parts of the country and we cannot afford that.
    "'We must take very serious initiatives, sit down at a table and find solutions.
    "We must ensure that floods do not occur and that structures are strong enough in the case of earthquakes".
    At the weekend, Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini said that he was opposed to the idea mooted by Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci of making it obligatory also for households to take out insurance to cover their properties for damage caused by extreme weather events.
    After last week's devastating flooding in Emilia Romagna and Marche, Musumeci said that making house insurance obligatory was likely as the State cannot afford to keep compensating people for the impact of extreme-weather events, which are become more frequent and more intense because of the climate crisis caused by human greenhouse gas emissions.
    But League leader Salvini said that such a measure would not have his support. "The State can give recommendations, this applies to insurance too," Salvini said at an event staged by construction association Confedilizia in Piacenza.
    "It can give advice, but we do not live in a State that imposes things, where the State forbids or obliges us to do things".
    (ANSA).