LONDON (Bloomberg) ? UK insurers need to embrace new underwriting and pricing strategies or ?risk being swept away? by the costs of climate change, said Lloyd?s of London.

Insurers have not taken environmental threats such as greenhouse gases and rising sea levels seriously enough, said the 300-year-old market in an e-mailed statement yesterday to promote its new report, ?Climate Change, Adapt or Bust.? Insurers must act now, it said, especially with ?extreme windstorms seasons set to continue?.

Lloyd?s of London insurers? profits tumbled in 2005 on the costliest year for natural disasters on record. The Lloyd?s of London market posted its first annual loss since 2001 after US storms battered the US Gulf Coast. ?2006 is likely to bring a greater than average number of named storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes,? Chicago-based analysts at Fitch Inc. said on June 2.

Insurers ?should invest time and money? in research, Lloyd?s said in its report. Companies should update catastrophe models to ensure correct capital allocation and pricing and ?look ahead? in making underwriting decisions instead of at historical records.