Global warming had long been discussed as an abstract matter of physics and chemistry. Only in the 1990s did the more tangible costs caused by natural catastrophes come into focus. The key corporate actors to advance this damage and risk perspective on climate change and corroborate it with data – reinsurance companies – have largely been overlooked in the literature. Drawing on expert interviews, hitherto confidential archival sources and text analysis, this paper traces how the two largest reinsurers have made sense of climate change and become important voices in creating awareness of man-made climate change. It underscores their unique role as both producers and translators of climate change knowledge and highlights the thorny and even subjective nature of interpreting climate-related data. This sheds new light on the history of climate change knowledge and raises important questions about the role of business actors.

中文翻译：

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灾难的簿记员：再保险公司在气候变化辩论中被忽视的作用


长期以来，全球变暖一直被视为物理和化学的抽象问题。直到 20 世纪 90 年代，自然灾害造成的有形成本才开始受到关注。推动气候变化损害和风险观点并用数据证实这一观点的关键企业参与者——再保险公司——在文献中很大程度上被忽视了。本文利用专家访谈、迄今为止保密的档案来源和文本分析，追溯了两家最大的再保险公司如何理解气候变化，并成为提高人们对人为气候变化认识的重要声音。它强调了他们作为气候变化知识的生产者和翻译者的独特作用，并强调了解释气候相关数据的棘手甚至主观性质。这为人们了解气候变化知识的历史提供了新的线索，并提出了有关商业行为者角色的重要问题。