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Better understanding of climate catastrophe insurance in China: issues and opportunities, international insights, and directions for development

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Abstract

Climate catastrophe insurance is an important tool for advancing China's comprehensive disaster prevention and mitigation efforts and an important part of modernizing China's national emergency management capabilities. Based on the understanding of the definition of catastrophe and China's climate catastrophe, this paper systematically analyzes the main problems and challenges faced by China's climate catastrophe risk management and elaborates on the characteristics of the current opportunities for the development of China's climate catastrophe insurance. The paper then summarizes the development features of international catastrophe insurance systems, compares the features of the Shenzhen and Ningbo pilots of catastrophe insurance in China, and proposes key focus points for the meteorological department to participate in climate catastrophe insurance. Finally, this paper proposes measures to enhance climate catastrophe insurance in China in future from the development of international catastrophe insurance and China's climate catastrophe pilot work. Firstly, consider the whole process of comprehensive disaster prevention and mitigation concept and play the role of the government and the market and other multi-body, to explore the construction of the catastrophe insurance system. Secondly, establish a special or comprehensive catastrophe insurance fund. Thirdly, promote the formation of public–private partnership sharing mechanism. Fourthly, the government should provide appropriate legal and policy support. Fifthly, use the market mechanisms to reduce government pressure on public finances in catastrophe insurance.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China, Grant No. 2018YFE0109600, the Chinese Universities Scientific Fund, Grant No. 2021TC062; the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant Nos. 41701103, 41775078, 41801064, and 71790611; and the Beijing Social Science Foundation Project, Grant No. 19JDGLA008.

Funding

This research was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China, Grant No. 2018YFE0109600, the Chinese Universities Scientific Fund, Grant No. 2021TC062; the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant Nos. 41701103, 41775078, 41801064, and 71790611; and the Beijing Social Science Foundation Project, Grant No. 19JDGLA008.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Humanities and Development Studies, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Feng Kong

  2. Center for Crisis Management Research, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Feng Kong

  3. Training Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing, 100081, China

    Yifei Wang

Authors
  1. Feng Kong
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  2. Yifei Wang
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All authors contributed equally to this work. All authors wrote, reviewed, and commented on the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Feng Kong.

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Kong, F., Wang, Y. Better understanding of climate catastrophe insurance in China: issues and opportunities, international insights, and directions for development. Nat Hazards 114, 2969–2990 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-022-05501-w

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