Abstract
Rather than constantly reacting to extreme weather conditions brought on, in the most part by the effects of climate change, is it not now time for the insurance industry to seize the opportunity and take a proactive stance for the greater good? Modern availability of data, innovative analytics products and frankly more importantly a moral obligation, can drive real change into society. With the development of new underwriting coupled with a better understanding of the connected risks, the industry can drive real change. Insuring and managing the risk of those specific industries in vulnerable regions that have far reaching effects on global supply chains and the refusal of some insurers and reinsurers like Allianz not to cover new coal based projects are merely the tip of the metaphorical melting iceberg.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Beam, A. (2019). California utility company to pay $1 billion to governments for wildfire damage. USA Today.
Bloomberg. (2019). Clean energy investment exceeded $300 billion once again in 2018. [Online]. Retrieved from https://about.bnef.com/blog/clean-energy-investment-exceeded-300-billion-2018/
Bosshard, P. (2017). Ten things you didn’t know about insurance companies and climate change, HuffPost.
Elkington, J. (1999). Cannibals with forks: triple bottom line of 21st century business. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Flavelle, C., & Plumer, L. A. (2019). California bans insurers from dropping policies made riskier by climate change. New York: Times.
Hope, B., & Friedman, N. (2018). Climate change is forcing the insurance industry to recalculate. Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/graphics/climate-change-forcing-insurance-industry-recalculate/
Howard, L. S. (2018). Insurance protection gap is growing global problem; Swiss Re, RenRe & WTW comment. Insurance Journal.
Integrated Reporting Foundation. (2019). Driving alignment in climate-related reporting: Year one of the better alignment project, s.l. Corporate Reporting Dialogue.
IPCC. (2019). Special report on the ocean and cryosphere in a changing climate.
Jenkins, P. (2019). Why climate change is the new 9/11 for insurance companies. Financial Times.
Lin, N., & Emanuel, K. (2015). Grey swan tropical cyclones. Nature Climate Change.
Munich Re. Risks posed by natural disasters. [Online] Retrieved from https://www.munichre.com/en/risks/natural-disasters-losses-are-trending-upwards.html
Neslen, A. (2019). Climate change could make insurance too expensive for most people. [Online]. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/21/climate-change-could-make-insurance-too-expensive-for-ordinary-people-report
Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance surges to nearly $4 trillion at COP25; other investors urged to get on board, UN Environment Programme.
O’Leary, J., & Murphy, T. (2017). Beyond carrots and sticks. Toronto, ON: Deloitte University Press.
Ritchie, D. (2018). Businesses urged to consider climate change-related risks. [Online]. Retrieved September 23, 2019, from https://www.cirmagazine.com/cir/Businesses-urged-to-consider-climate-change%2D%2Drelated-risks.php
Rudolph, M. J. (2019). 12th Annual Survey of Emerging Risks, s.l.: Canadian Institute of Actuaries, Casualty Actuarial Society, and Society of Actuaries.
Schwartz, J. (2019). In ‘strongest’ climate ruling yet, Dutch Court orders leaders to take action. New York Times.
Shelly, J. (2019). The global protection gap has reached $1.2 trillion - But there might be good news still.
Stern, N. (2015). Why are we waiting? Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Sulakshana, E. E. (2019). Major U.S. insurer says it will no longer underwrite and invest in coal, Salon.
Swiss Re Institute. (2018). Global insured losses from disasters at $79 billion in 2018: Swiss Re Sigma Estimate. Insurance Journal.
Swiss Re Institute. (2019). sigma 2/2019. Zurich: Swiss Re.
The World Bank. (2019). Urban development.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rao, S., Chandur, S. (2021). Moving the Topic of Climate Change from Politics to Economics. In: Wendt, K. (eds) Theories of Change. Sustainable Finance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52275-9_29
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52275-9_29
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-52274-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-52275-9
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)