-- Marty Malinow's mom never could get her head around what her son did for a living. To friends, she said he was “a stockbroker that does something with the weather.” Malinow couldn’t really object — he knew most people had no clue about financial contracts based on things like sunshine, rainfall and wind.That’s beginning to change. Against a backdrop of rising climate volatility and social shifts, demand for weather derivatives is surging.
“All of these companies have weather risks that they’re not hedging, and now they have to deal with it,” says Nicholas Ernst, managing director of climate derivatives at BGC Group, a market intermediary. “We’re starting to move into this much larger financial market.” But historically weather derivatives have mostly been used to cushion energy companies from fluctuations in demand caused by shifting temperatures. Power suppliers face clear and predictable risks: If a summer is cooler than expected, people won’t use air conditioners as much, and in a mild winter, heating demand might wane. Options based on temperature indexes can help offset any hit to their income.
Malinow’s firm, Parameter Climate, works with companies keen to insure against these kinds of threats. That includes energy suppliers with their increasingly complex needs, as well as businesses that are considering weather hedges for the first time. Syngenta says its program has proved a wild success. The AgriClime offer now covers a range of crops over more than 50,000 farms in 17 countries, according to Peter Steiner, the firm’s global head of weather and credit risk management.
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