How Will Insurance Companies Deal With Climate Change ?

The (re)insurance market covers climate risks as part of traditional natural disaster coverage. At first glance, just because climate risks are increasing does not mean they become uninsurable. Given that the coverage offered by the market is primarily short-term (generally one year), pricing can be easily adjusted according to risk to preserve the financial stability of (re)insurers.

The most exposed policyholders can naturally respond either by moving or by reducing their coverage… except that, in the latter case, they increase the portion of the risk that remains their responsibility. On the other hand, if we assume that (re)insurers should not raise their rates in response to the rising cost of climate risk, it is clear that their capacity to absorb this risk will gradually decline… unless the burden of this rising cost is transferred to the government through a redistribution mechanism that would inevitably be costly. The session will be devoted to a critical discussion of these various points and their plausibility.