Buffett Watch

No climate change impact on insurance biz: Buffett

Buffett: Climate change has had no effect on insurance market
VIDEO3:2403:24
Buffett: Climate change has had no effect on insurance market

The effects of climate change, "if any," have not affected the insurance market, billionaire Warren Buffett told CNBC on Monday—adding he's not calculating the probabilities of catastrophes any differently.

While the question of climate change "deserves lots of attention," Buffett said in a "Squawk Box" interview, "It has no effect ... [on] the prices we're charging this year versus five years ago. And I don't think it'll have an effect on what we're charging three years or five years from now." He added, "That may change ten years from now."

(Read more: I'd vote 'yes' on Keystone pipeline: Warren Buffett)

He said the U.S. has been "remarkably free of hurricanes" in the past five years with only slightly more tornadoes.

Kei Uesugi | Stone | Getty Images

"The public has the impression that because there's been so much talk about climate that events of the last 10 years from an insured standpoint and climate have been unusual," he continued. "The answer is they haven't."

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway owns several insurance and reinsurance interests—including Geico and General Reinsurance—and often has to pay significant claims when natural disasters strike.

(Read more: Warren Buffett: Ukraine won't stop my stock buying)

In his annual letter to shareholders released on Saturday, Buffett wrote that strong insurance results helped Berkshire earn $19.48 billion last year on $182.15 billion in revenue. That's up from earnings of $14.82 billion on $162.46 billion in revenue in 2012.

"I love apocalyptic predictions" on climate change, Buffett told CNBC on Monday, because they probably do affect rates.

But right now, he said, "The rates have come down very significantly, so we're not writing much, if anything, in the U.S."

—By CNBC's Matthew J. Belvedere. Follow him on Twitter @Matt_SquawkCNBC. The Associated Press contributed to this report.