THE world faces financial crisis unless swift action is taken to avert global warming, insurance experts will say today (Nick Nuttall writes).

Increased incidence of storms, flash flooding, heat waves and disease are set to trigger insurance claims running into billions of pounds. These were likely to prove impossible to meet, causing wholesale bankruptcies of insurance firms, a collapse of the banking system and worldwide economic chaos, insurers fear.

The concerns will be delivered in Geneva to politicians and civil servants of more than 100 countries, signatories to the Climate Change Convention.

The latest report by United Nations scientists says that pollution would lead to more extreme weather during the next 30 years.

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