Kathmandu. Asian insurers have lagged behind their European and North American peers in biodiversity measures. But the global insurance industry has lagged behind on climate action. This is because increasing catastrophe damage reflects an increasing coverage gap. <\/p>\n
Natural disasters are expected to cause an average of $280 billion in direct economic losses each year between 2015 and 2024. Less than half of which is covered by insurance. <\/p>\n
According to ShareXin, climate change and ecosystem degradation are making insurance expensive or uncommercially viable in some areas. Most insurance companies received ‘D’, ‘E’ or ‘F’ grades. Only a few of them made it to ‘C’ or ‘B’. <\/p>\n
The German insurance company Allianza was the highest-rated company with a B grade. While the Dutch insurance company Achamia was the only other insurance company to receive a similar valuation. <\/p>\n
According to the report, many insurance companies continue to invest and invest in activities related to climate change and biodiversity loss, despite the increasing financial risks associated with these issues. ShareAction noted that progress has slowed since its previous benchmark was published in 2024 and fewer insurers have submitted new climate and sustainability commitments. <\/p>\n
However, ShareAction also noted that there have been no significant changes to existing commitments. The report found that at least one insurance company met 16 of the 20 criteria evaluated. Which suggests that stronger measures can be taken. <\/p>\n
The report also highlighted Lloyd’s poor performance of London’s managing agents. <\/p>\n
Only 30 percent of the 10 large independent managing agents had restrictions on the underwriting of upstream coal projects. None of them mentioned the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. <\/p>\n
In comparison, 80 per cent of traditional insurers had restrictions on coal underwriting and 64 per cent had declared net-zero targets by 2050. <\/p>\n
ShareAction found that 73 percent of insurance companies had no underwriting restrictions on upstream oil and gas expansion. While 33 percent did not have coal underwriting restrictions. The report noted that where there were restrictions, exemptions were often available. It also found that more than 90 percent of insurance companies involved in treaty reinsurance did not have any insurance restrictions related to climate, biodiversity, or social risks. <\/p>\n
In terms of biodiversity, nearly two-thirds of insurers did not disclose any location-based insurance restrictions for environmentally sensitive areas. Instead, it relied on due diligence or monitoring patterns. <\/p>\n
The report also found that most insurance companies do not prohibit their participation in weapons that are banned under international law. None of the insurance companies evaluated their insurance or investment policies specifically mentioning autonomous weapons. <\/p>\n
ShareAction and WWF have urged insurers to strengthen their climate, biodiversity and social policies. They also urged policymakers to enact stronger regulations with measures to hold polluters accountable, punish insurance companies that contribute to the risks they incur, and adjust solvency rules to promote long-term climate resilience. <\/p>\n
The fourth edition of ShareAction’s Insurer Disaster Report evaluates 40 of the world’s largest property and casualty insurance companies. This includes 30 traditional insurance companies and 10 managing agents at Lloyd’s in London. \u2013Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kathmandu. Asian insurers have lagged behind their European and North American peers in biodiversity measures. But the global insurance industry has lagged behind on climate action. This is because increasing catastrophe damage reflects an increasing coverage gap. Natural disasters are expected to cause an average of $280 billion in direct economic losses each year between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":288017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45031,45044,45159],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banner-news-en","category-international-news-en","category-news-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305567"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305568,"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305567\/revisions\/305568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/media\/288017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insurancekhabar.com\/ikbrapi\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}