The insurance crisis gripping communities worldwide today can be traced directly to climate inaction yesterday. Insurers could trigger a crisis of confidence in fossil fuel expansion overnight, but instead they have chosen to exacerbate mounting climate costs and transfer them to policyholders and the public.
The Scorecard on Insurance, Climate Change, and the Energy Transition analyzes 30 leading primary insurers and reinsurers, assessing their policies on insuring and investing in coal, oil and gas. The report reveals that climate change accounts for an estimated $600 billion, or over a third, of global insured weather losses over the last two decades — an immense climate price tag that insurers have long been passing on to policyholders.
Learn more about insurance companies and fossil fuels and what lawmakers and regulators can do to address the resulting affordability challenges and protection gaps, as well as the root causes driving the crisis below or in the scorecard report.
- Mandate robust scenario analysis to account for the full complexity of climate-related events, including tipping points.
- Develop, implement and disclose 1.5°C-aligned transition plans.
How does climate change affect insurers?
Climate damages will grow exponentially and could overwhelm both insurers and economies.
How are insurers responding to climate change?
Insure Our Future’s analysis found that the industry as a whole has stalled on effective climate action even as it abandons communities worldwide to face mounting risks without protection and pay eye-watering costs they had little role in creating.
Do insurers profit from climate change?
Climate change accounts for an estimated $600 billion, or over a third, of global insured weather losses over the last two decades — an immense climate price tag that insurers have long been passing on to policyholders.
Do insurance companies insure fossil fuels?
On average fossil fuel premiums make up under 2% of total premiums, raising serious questions about why insurers are not using their outsized influence on the fossil fuel sector to protect the other 98% of their business against spiraling climate risks.
How can insurers be more climate responsible?
Italian insurer Generali set a new bar this October by adopting the first fossil fuel restriction policy that covers the entire oil and gas value chain and includes in its scope new methane LNG projects that threaten climate targets.
How can insurers create climate responsible policies?
Read our full set of demands for more details.
What are the economical and ethical implications behind insuring fossil fuel projects?
The industry’s current approach of underwriting fossil fuel expansion that exacerbates climate risks and withdrawing coverage and/or charging more for these risks is both economically irresponsible and unjust.