The Greening of Insurance

Every sector of the economy telegraphs climate risks to its insurers. In turn, climate change stands as a stress test for insurance, the world's largest industry, with U.S. $4.6 trillion in revenues, 7% of the global economy (1–6). Insurers publicly voiced concern about human-induced climate change four decades ago (1). I describe industry trends, activities, and promising avenues for future effort, from a synthesis of industry progress in managing climate change risk [see supplementary materials (SM)].