The Insurance against the Energy Risk Could ...

Economic reflections on the environment are relatively recent: The founder Article of the theory of natural resources in 1931 (price trends laws and comparison of the rates of extraction depending on the competition regime). The broader issues of management of scarce resources (oil) or renewable (fisheries) are an even more recent concern, but toward which the public is sensitized, as evidenced the rise of environmental concerns. That of global warming has considerable economic and political issues (Kyoto Protocol ...). Among commodity products in the world, oil is the mostly transported. Most of the oil flowing in the world is carried on specific ships, tankers. They can easily deliver large quantities of -either crude or refined -oil to places where they are needed, often following the same routes. The shipping of these products is done under conditions of strict security provided by the oil companies, ship-owners who have the ships and the states that register them. Energy consumption by shipping is the source of many pollutants. Environmental risks associated with exporting and shipping of oil in particular can be very important. The resulting effects are diverse and often complex. For some of them (impacts on the built environment, visibility, vegetation: wildlife, health) it is however possible to give some quantification in physical terms. The monetary value of these effects can refer to their economic cost or to a "contingent valuation", and it raises some methodological difficulties. Today the risk is financial, social, physical, environmental and human. The shipping company must manage after identifying risks and knowing how to transfer them to insurers, sovereign states, take offs to the maritime adventure, as the sea still remains a wild world. Although shipping is considered one of the means of transport that causes little harm to the environment, it may have important effects if standards are not observed or are not enforced.