The global state of sustainable insurance

Global insurers controlling assets worth trillions of US dollars have joined with the world's leading academics in a United Nations-backed survey putting the industry's approach to sustainability and climate risks under forensic examination. The report highlighting the first-ever such global survey of the powerful insurance sector, and backed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), says that the industry has a fundamental role to play to speed the transition to a clean, green, low carbon global economy that supports sustainable development and tackles the threat of global warming head on. The document reveals that senior executives from the powerful sector are convinced that in order to sustain their industry's long-term economic health, they must systematically integrate key environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into insurance company underwriting guidelines and product development, and other core operations such as investment management, claims management, and sales and marketing.