Green and low-carbon have become the new keywords of current economic development, and the insurance industry, as an economic booster, is also accelerating the pace of green transformation.

It is understood that as of the end of September 2022, the scale of green investment and financing of Ping An of China is about 319.8 billion yuan, and the scale of green banking business is about 184.2 billion yuan. Only in the first three quarters of 2022, environmental sustainable insurance products achieved original insurance premium income of about 110.5 billion yuan.

Recent public information shows that in the comprehensive promotion of "double carbon" action, China Life green investment scale has exceeded 400 billion yuan.

Picc said that in terms of serving green environmental protection, it actively implements the "double carbon" strategy, supports ecological environmental protection and the development of environmental protection industries, and strengthens investment and financing services in green and low-carbon fields. As of September 30, 2022, the total investment service national strategy exceeded 1 trillion yuan.

According to the statistics of the China Insurance Industry Association, from 2018 to 2020, the insurance industry has provided a total of 45.03 trillion yuan of green insurance protection for the whole society, and paid 53.377 billion yuan in claims, effectively playing the role of risk protection.

Policy evolution

The green transformation of the insurance industry is inseparable from policy guidance. With the improvement and deepening of the legal and regulatory system and the strengthening of policy guidance, the green insurance support system is gradually improving.

In August 2016, the People's Bank of China and seven other ministries and commissions jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Building a Green Financial System, proposing to "establish a compulsory environmental pollution liability insurance system in areas with high environmental risks", "encourage and support insurance institutions to innovate green insurance products and services", and "encourage and support insurance institutions to participate in the construction of environmental risk management system". Green insurance is officially included in the green financial system.

Since then, industry policy has tended to become more detailed.

In May 2018, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment reviewed and adopted in principle the Administrative Measures for Compulsory Environmental Pollution Liability Insurance (Draft), which proposed that enterprises, public institutions or other producers and operators engaged in high-risk environmental production and business activities should take out compulsory environmental pollution liability insurance; The Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste, which came into effect on September 1, 2020, stipulates that units that collect, store, transport, utilize and dispose of hazardous waste shall, in accordance with relevant state regulations, take out environmental pollution liability insurance. Since then, environmental liability insurance will fully cover enterprises involved in hazardous waste.

In February 2021, The State Council issued the Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment and Improvement of a Green, Low-carbon and Circular Economic Development System, proposing the development of green insurance and giving play to the role of the insurance rate adjustment mechanism.

"More differentiated insurance rates can only be achieved by including insurance rates as part of the carbon trading price." Closely linking the rise and fall of future premiums with the carbon emission control efforts of enterprises can not only further reduce the insurance cost of low-carbon emission enterprises, achieve a better balance between risk price and cost, but also promote the rational risk layout of green transformation, and accelerate the green low-carbon transformation of the entire economy and society." Zhou Yanli, former vice chairman of the Insurance Regulatory Commission, pointed out the significance of the insurance rate adjustment mechanism.

In June this year, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the "Green Finance Guidelines for the Banking and insurance Industry", raising the development of green finance in the banking and insurance industry to a strategic level, requiring banking and insurance institutions to incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) requirements into their management processes and comprehensive risk management systems. In response, insurance companies have incorporated ESG into the company's medium - and long-term development planning, and added ESG and environmental responsibility protection to the comprehensive assessment indicators of their own development.