NEW YORK (Bloomberg) ? US insurance regulators on Friday agreed to study how a warming climate might affect the industry and its customers, a decision that reflects increasing concern among insurers about potential future losses due to extreme weather.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners said it had voted to form a task force to examine the potential impact of climate change and possible measures regulators and insurers can take to reduce risk.

More US insurers, including Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the Omaha, Nebraska-based insurance and investment company run by billionaire Warren Buffett, are boosting rates or dropping coverage following hurricanes that caused almost $100 billion in insured losses over the past two years.

?US insurers can?t ignore this issue any longer,? said Andrew Logan, who oversees insurance matters at CERES, a Boston-based coalition of investment funds, environmental organisations and advocacy groups that promote social responsibility. ?The long-term solvency of the industry and the availability of insurance for consumers are at stake.?

While European companies such as Munich Re and Swiss Reinsurance Co., the world?s two largest reinsurers, have long spoken out about the risk climate change poses to the industry, US counterparts have been more wary.

?There are still a few people out there, though not many, who don?t think the weather is getting worse, but that we?ve just had a couple of unusual years,? said Paul Newsome, an insurance analyst at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis. ?A wider group thinks we will have more violent storms in the future and should price accordingly.?

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners? task force will be led Tim Wagner, head of the Nebraska Department of Insurance, and Mike Kreidler, insurance commissioner for Washington state, according to the Kansas City, Missouri-based group.

The NAIC is the forum through which insurance regulators from the 50 US states work to address issues facing the industry, which is regulated primarily at the state level.

While no individual weather event can be directly attributed to global warming, data from scientists and insurance models indicate that rising temperatures will likely increase the frequency and intensity of storms, floods, drought, wildfires and other extreme weather, according to CERES.

Some scientists say human-generated emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses are contributing to the hotter temperatures and leading to more intense storms and larger natural catastrophes.

President George W. Bush has questioned the science behind global warming concerns and resisted calls by those who say the issue needs more attention in Washington. Insurers? growing concern about climate change may add to that pressure, according to CERES.

?The insurance industry is well positioned to be part of the solution for climate change because it has influence with both policy makers and companies,? Logan said.

Newsome said the insurance industry largely ?doesn?t really care? about what?s causing climate change. Instead, the companies ?care about whether it?s happening,? he said.

Four Florida hurricanes cost insurers $22.9 billion in 2004, according to Insurance Services Office Inc. Last year?s storms, including Hurricane Katrina, led to $56.8 billion in losses, more than twice the annual record, the Jersey City, New Jersey-based consulting firm said.

Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway?s chief executive officer, said last week that the company?s reinsurance units will charge ?far higher prices? for large catastrophe policies after sustaining a loss of $3.4 billion from last year?s US hurricane season.

Buffett, considered by many to be the world?s greatest investor, said in his annual letter to shareholders that while the cause behind the more frequent and intense hurricanes remains ?an open question,? the company must err on the side of caution and assume there will be more extreme weather in the future.

Environmentalists and others who advocate federal action on climate change say Buffett?s comments are significant.

?When the Oracle of Omaha divines that there?s a financial impact from climate, people will pay attention,? said David Tuft, the climate centre campaign director for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington. ?This is more evidence that there?s a growing awareness that climate change is having a financial impact.?