Climate change brings about a new set of major economic risks arising from changing weather patterns, extreme weather events and rising sea levels. Most at risk are developing countries who, despite considerable post-disaster donor aid, have been bearing the major brunt of disaster-related losses. One adaptation solution that is rapidly gaining the support of countries and international donors is a risk transfer to the global reinsurance and capital markets. This volume, a special issue of the journal Climate Policy, explores the role that insurance-based mechanisms can play in helping developing countries prepare for climate change. It offers a unique and comprehensive perspective on the potential role of insurance solutions in global adaptation to climate change and attempts to engender debate on the role of insurance in reducing global emissions and encouraging climate-friendly corporate behaviour.

An examination of how insurance arrangements can contribute to societies' management of the risks of natural disasters in a changing climate.

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.

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.

This latest Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will again form the standard reference for all those concerned with climate change and its consequences, including students, researchers and policy makers in environmental science, meteorology, climatology, biology, ecology, atmospheric chemistry and environmental policy.

Climate change is the single most important global environmental and development issue facing the world today and has emerged as a major topic in tourism studies. Climate change is already affecting the tourism industry and is anticipated to have profound implications for tourism in the twenty-first century, including consumer holiday choices, the geographic patterns of tourism demand, the competitiveness and sustainability of destinations and the contribution of tourism to international development. Tourism and Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation is the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of the theory and practice of climate change and tourism at the tourist, enterprise, destination and global scales. Major themes include the implications of climate change and climate policy for tourism sectors and destinations around the world, tourist perceptions of climate change impacts, tourism’s global contribution to climate change, adaptation and mitigation responses by all major tourism stakeholders, and the integral links between climate change and sustainable tourism. It combines a thorough scientific assessment of the climate-tourism interrelationships with discussion of emerging mitigation and adaptation practice, showcasing international examples throughout the tourism sector as well as actions by other sectors that will have important implications for tourism. Written by three leading academics in this field, this critical contribution highlights the challenges of climate change within the tourism community and provides a foundation for decision making for both reducing the risks, and taking advantage of the opportunities, associated with climate change. This comprehensive discussion of the complexities of climate change and tourism is essential reading for students, academics, business leaders and government policy makers.

Summarizing the current state of knowledge on the links between business and climate change, this timely Handbook analyzes how businesses contribute to and are affected by climate change, looking closely at their centrality in developing and deploying solutions to address this problem. Contributions from a global collection of scholars and practitioners explore a broad range of key industries’ impacts and responses to climate change, examining corporate strategy and leadership in the climate economy, functional perspectives and corporate practice, and climate finance.

First Published in 2009. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.