The Impact of CLIMATE CHANGE and SUSTAINABILITY STANDARDS on the INSURANCE MARKET The book explores the role of the insurance industry in contributing and responding to the harms that climate change has brought. This book delves into the physical and logical impacts, both direct and indirect, on the insurance industry. Subjects discussed include new technology such as big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, the growth of sustainable economics with foreign direct investments (FDIs), trustworthiness, and ethics. Related use cases of data science for claim processing, fraud detection and prevention, policy administration, pricing, and underwriting are discussed along with cyber security issues, data protection, and big data regulatory reforms. To promote ESG sustainability, the insurance industry plays a critical and significant role. Climate-related risks are being factored into underwriting and investing strategies. Through their own operations and business activities, insurers may promote the ESG agenda and move towards sustainability. Also discussed are promoting diversity and inclusion, lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, resolving gender inequality, and helping communities through charitable work, which all improve a company’s brand, reputation, and ESG credentials. Audience The book is specially designed for administrators, lecturers, researchers, students of insurance and sustainability, students in financial services, insurance practitioners, actuaries, loss adjusters, underwriters, regulators, facilities management, utility companies, voluntary organizations, government departments, business leaders, policymakers, decision-makers, investors, risk managers, compliance managers, and audit managers amongst many others.

Weather-related events have cost the nation billions of dollars in damages over the past decade. Many of these losses are borne by private insurers & by two federal insurance programs -- the National Flood Insurance Program, which insures properties against flooding, & the Federal Crop Insurance Corp., which insures crops against drought or other weather disasters. The author was asked to: (1) describe how climate change may affect future weather-related losses; (2) determine past insured weather-related losses; & (3) determine what major private insurers & federal insurers are doing to prepare for potential increases in such losses. Includes recommendations. Charts & tables.

"The insurance industry has found itself at the front line of climate change challenges, providing insurance cover in relation to risks associated with climate change. As risk carriers, insurers pay claims for climate change related losses - such as property damage caused by windstorms, flooding, and wildfires - which have been increasing in frequency and severity. As major institutional investors, insurance companies invest in assets that may be increasingly vulnerable to climate risks. Insurance regulators across the globe have therefore started to require insurance companies to identify, manage and report on climate change risks that could pose a threat to their financial stability. However, managing and reporting on the effect of climate risk on an insurer's balance sheet is an inward-looking perspective that does not stem climate change. It needs to be paired with an outward-looking perspective that takes account of the insurance industry's impact on the environment, and the insurance industry's capacity to influence what policyholders, investee enterprises and other business partners do to address climate change challenges. For the insurance industry, the key components of positive outward impact are "impact underwriting" and "impact investment". This book sets out the current legal and regulatory landscape for impact underwriting and impact investment. Whilst the focus of research and regulatory interventions to date has been on inward impact, in this book it will be argued that, to take positive climate action that supports the Paris Agreement goals and the national and international Net Zero targets, the debate should now move on to considering the positive outward impact the insurance industry can make, and how we can create a legal environment to facilitate this. The book puts forward the case for a new vision of the role of the insurance industry as climate action enablers and makes proposals for insurance products and risk transfer and loss resilience structures that can support policyholders in their transition to a Net Zero economy. The audience for this book will include legal practitioners, insurance industry professionals, financial and insurance regulators, policymakers and interested academics"--

Climate change has become a significant issue in scientific, political, and legal circles, and this may have profound implications for the insurance industry. More frequent catastrophic events such as floods, droughts, fires, hurricanes, and the like, whether or not attributable to climate change, challenge the insurance industry's abilities to measure and predict risk.

This book provides an authoritative insight on the Loss and Damage discourse by highlighting state-of-the-art research and policy linked to this discourse and articulating its multiple concepts, principles and methods. Written by leading researchers and practitioners, it identifies practical and evidence-based policy options to inform the discourse and climate negotiations. With climate-related risks on the rise and impacts being felt around the globe has come the recognition that climate mitigation and adaptation may not be enough to manage the effects from anthropogenic climate change. This recognition led to the creation of the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage in 2013, a climate policy mechanism dedicated to dealing with climate-related effects in highly vulnerable countries that face severe constraints and limits to adaptation. Endorsed in 2015 by the Paris Agreement and effectively considered a third pillar of international climate policy, debate and research on Loss and Damage continues to gain enormous traction. Yet, concepts, methods and tools as well as directions for policy and implementation have remained contested and vague. Suitable for researchers, policy-advisors, practitioners and the interested public, the book furthermore: • discusses the political, legal, economic and institutional dimensions of the issue• highlights normative questions central to the discourse • provides a focus on climate risks and climate risk management. • presents salient case studies from around the world.