Managing environmental, social and governance risks in non-life insurance business

This document is a result of a multi-year PSI initiative to develop the first global guide to manage ESG risks in risk assessment and insurance underwriting. It has an initial focus on non-life insurance business—also known as property and casualty insurance business. The aims of this guide are to: 1. Provide optional guidance to insurance industry participants in developing approaches to assess ESG risks in non-life insurance business transactions, particularly industrial and commercial insurance business 2. Support clients, intermediaries and other stakeholders in facilitating ESG-related information which might be required during the ESG due diligence of transactions 3. Highlight the materiality of ESG risks to various lines of business and economic sectors, including characteristics which might affect the ability to assess and mitigate such risks 4. Address growing concerns by stakeholders across society (e.g. NGOs, investors, governments) on ESG risks and articulate the peculiarities of the insurance business 5. Demonstrate the valuable role the insurance industry plays in the global economy and society, and strengthen the industry’s contribution to sustainable development ESG risks can vary by country or region, line of business, type of cover, economic sectors, client characteristics, over time, and due to other factors. The guide helps draw attention to this complex range of considerations and how some industry participants are going about their integration of ESG risk factors into non-life risk assessment and underwriting.