The insurance industry has a long history of advocating for common-sense precautions including seat belts, fire codes, and workplace safety standards. These practices keep people safe and lower the cost of disasters and accidents for businesses, individuals, and the government. As the physical effects of the climate crisis increasingly endanger people, businesses, and the broader economy, the insurance industry must do its part to mitigate risk and improve resilience.
Our approach
Through the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets, we produce innovative research and advocate to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, state insurance regulators, the Federal Insurance Office, individual insurers and trade associations. We are mobilizing the insurance industry to:
Plan for the future, not for the past. Insurance companies need to reassess their risk exposures based on the latest climate data and share these findings with regulators and policyholders.
Disclose climate risk exposure. Insurers should be transparent and provide consistent public reporting to better enable insurance regulators, investors, and policyholders to assess the materiality of climate change risk to a particular insurance company.
Expand the financial protection of insurance to those whose needs are not currently met by the market. Insurers must make disaster insurance more affordable, accessible, transparent, people-centered, and just.
Assess and manage exposure to carbon asset risk. Insurance companies have extensive exposure to risks associated with their investment holdings in and underwriting services for carbon-intensive companies, especially in the oil and gas and electric utility sectors. Insurers need to better assess and reduce these exposures through company engagement and by establishing and strengthening investment transition plans.
Re-align investment portfolios to capture new opportunities from the global transition to a low-carbon economy. Insurers should invest and make insurance products and services in clean energy solutions and corporations that are leading the way in energy efficiency, water conservation, and environmental responsibility.
Develop and offer new products that help their customers reduce their risk exposure and support emerging and clean technology.
