Climate litigation risk Is there shelter from the storm?wtwco.com2 / Climate litigation risk — is there shelter from the storm?In this paper, launched to coincide with New York Climate Week 2023, we combine the expertise of WTW’s Susan Doering and Michelle Radcliffe (Corporate Risk & Broking and Insurance Consulting & Technology respectively), along with Martin Lockman, Climate Law Fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and Associate Research Scholar at Columbia Law School, to focus on the relatively less well documented impact of climate litigation on the insurance market. As regulators, shareholders, and investors increasingly focus on the risk of climate litigation, it is crucial for (re)insurers to understand their potential exposure to climate litigation across different lines of business. The paper aims to help non-life (re)insurers understand the scope of private sector climate litigation, highlight its potential impact on different policy lines, and present (re)insurers with an overview of coverage considerations, risk assessment measures, and areas for future innovation. We also identify how reinsurers can be proactive in addressing the global climate transition. Many categories of climate litigation arise from companies’ failure to plan for and protect against the impacts of global climate change. By building tools, scenarios and systems to identify, assess, and mitigate climate litigation risk, (re)insurers can work with their clients to identify and mitigate risk, resulting in a mutually beneficial outcome for all parties. We focus on a high-level discussion of risks, mitigants, and opportunities, and do not provide any legal advice. The question of whether any specific cost will be c...
