Within Our Power 2024 Scorecard: Cut Emissions Today to Insure Tomorrow
research 2024-12-17

Within Our Power 2024 Scorecard: Cut Emissions Today to Insure Tomorrow

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Insure Our Future’s eighth annual scorecard report Within Our Power reveals that climate change accounts for an estimated $600 billion, or over a third, of global insured weather losses over the last two decades.


The report’s analysis of 28 top global property and casualty insurers found that their estimated share of climate-attributed losses ($10.6 billion) rivaled the $11.3 billion in direct premiums they underwrote for commercial fossil fuel clients in 2023.


On average fossil fuel premiums make up under 2% of total premiums, raising serious questions about why insurers are not using their outsized influence on the fossil fuel sector to protect the other 98% of their business against spiraling climate risks.

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Key findings

  1. Over one-third of weather-related insured losses over the last two decades, totaling $600 billion, can be attributed to climate change.

  2. Climate-attributed losses have recently accounted for a growing share of insured weather losses, showing how decarbonization is crucial to contain soaring insurance costs.

  3. Estimated climate-attributed losses for 28 top property and casualty insurers ($10.6B) approached the fossil fuel premiums they collected ($11.3B) in 2023 – and for more than half the companies, they exceeded them.

  4. The renewable energy insurance market is still under 30% of the size of the fossil fuel insurance market in 2023, threatening to be a bottleneck for investments in the climate transition.

  5. At the brink of 1.5°C, insurers are abandoning at-risk communities worldwide while enabling fossil fuel expansion that drives these risks higher – requiring immediate policy and regulatory action.