In the process of achieving China's "double carbon" goal, green insurance will undoubtedly have great prospects. But what are the challenges facing the development of green insurance products in the low-carbon era? How to break the game?
Zhongan Institute of financial science and technology, in its report of "insurance carbon neutralization series report II: green insurance products in the low-carbon era" (hereinafter referred to as the "report") released on January 14, believes that the development achievements of China's green insurance have initially appeared in recent years, but there is still a large gap compared with the security needs of economic and social green and low-carbon transformation, Science and technology will be the "breaking point" to promote the further development of green insurance.
Wang Min, executive deputy general manager of Zhong'an insurance, said that for green insurance, on the one hand, insurance companies must improve the accuracy and scalability of risk pricing of underwriting solutions with the help of emerging technologies; On the other hand, we need to actively establish partnerships to deal with the risk management challenges brought by green transformation and help insurance customers grasp the development opportunities of green economy.
green insurance suppresses the risk of low-carbon transformation
At present, the transformation of economy to green and low-carbon has become a general consensus of the international community. The rapid development of green economy will be an inevitable trend in the medium and long term of the global economy. In the process of coping with climate change and economic transition to low carbon, how to manage risks is also facing new challenges.
The report believes that insurance is one of the important participants in market-oriented carbon emission governance. Through innovative insurance products and services, it can realize the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development at a low social cost. Climate insurance, green building insurance and new energy vehicle insurance are three typical types of green insurance products.
In recent years, due to climate change, urbanization and other reasons, the economic losses caused by global meteorological disasters are on the rise. From 2013 to 2020, there were 6 catastrophic loss accidents of more than 1 billion yuan in China, and the single largest typhoon loss reached 3.6 billion yuan. Facing the threat of natural disasters, weather index insurance and catastrophe index insurance play an irreplaceable role.
Since 2014, China has tried to arrange catastrophe insurance to provide economic compensation for huge property losses and serious casualties caused by natural disasters such as earthquake, hurricane, tsunami and flood. In addition, precipitation and temperature weather index insurance, solar radiation power generation and wind power generation index insurance for clean energy power generation can stabilize the disturbance caused by climate change to agricultural production and clean energy power generation, change the dilemma of "relying on the weather", help power generation enterprises develop and grow, and promote the transformation of energy structure.
However, the report believes that climate insurance is facing technical difficulties, lacking historical data such as rainfall, typhoon level and earthquake magnitude, as well as the correlation between these data and the amount of disaster losses.
In terms of green building insurance, according to the data of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the construction industry accounts for nearly 40% of the global energy related carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, the large-scale construction of green low-carbon communities and buildings is a necessary choice for China's low-carbon transformation.
Zhongan financial technology research institute said in the report that from a global perspective, green building insurance mainly includes green building property insurance and green building professional liability insurance to help customers make buildings more environmentally friendly and save energy. However, green building insurance relies on the control of the whole process of material selection and construction of building construction to ensure that the building meets the star standard of green building operation evaluation, which puts forward higher requirements for risk management ability.
New energy vehicles are an important starting point for traffic carbon reduction. Goldman Sachs estimates that the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in China's total road transport vehicles will reach 20% by 2030 and close to 70% by 2040. China is and will be the world's largest electric vehicle market.
Last December, the China Insurance Industry Association officially issued the exclusive terms of commercial insurance for new energy vehicles (Trial) of the China Insurance Industry Association, which clearly included the fire and combustion, power grid failure and charging pile related to the "three electricity" system and the power of new energy vehicles into the insurance coverage, so that new energy vehicles entered the era of exclusive insurance.
However, the division of labor and coordination of the financial value chain of new energy vehicles, including OEMs, insurance companies and battery manufacturers, still need to be constructed and improved, the data interconnection mechanism between them still needs to be constructed, and the experience of insurance companies in the design and pricing of new energy vehicle related insurance products still needs to be accumulated.
The report suggests that insurance companies, battery manufacturers, main engine manufacturers and other value chain entities should take joint action to promote all parties to work together to obtain better development opportunities under the general trend of low-carbon travel by launching industry initiatives or formulating industry standards by relevant regulatory authorities or industry associations.
digital technology is the "breaking point"
According to the report, from the development of several green related insurances in recent years, their achievements have initially appeared, but there is still a large gap compared with the security demand for green and low-carbon transformation of economy and society. We need to continue to make efforts in product supply, coverage breadth and depth, risk data accumulation, innovation and incentive mechanism, etc.
Science and technology will be the breaking point for accelerating the realization of the "double carbon" goal and the accelerated development of green insurance. According to the report, digital communication technologies such as sensors, 5g and artificial intelligence are changing the way of energy use and consumption in social economy. At the same time, the accumulation of relevant industrial practices and the interconnection of infrastructure have laid a foundation for commercial insurance R & D and innovation of green insurance products or services.
For example, in meteorological insurance, meteorological technology companies can apply scientific and technological means such as UAV and satellite remote sensing and big data technology to weather monitoring to help insurance companies design insurance products with more accurate pricing and wider coverage; In terms of new energy vehicle insurance, the application of technologies such as intelligent Internet connected vehicles and cloud platform big data can enable insurance companies, especially emerging Internet insurance enterprises, to establish digital advantages, innovate and develop characteristic new energy vehicle insurance products and services, and layout the whole business chain.
At the same time, it has been proved that technological and digital innovation in the field of micro insurance can provide basic protection for more vulnerable groups. This includes the use of UAVs, sensors, intelligent image recognition technology, etc. in the application of distribution, underwriting, underwriting and claim settlement, it can improve the sense of acquisition and happiness of green insurance to a certain extent, which is worthy of special attention in the industry.
Wang Min believes that the adoption of new technologies must be accompanied by systematic changes. Any new solution must consider the complexity of interdependence among various subjects. Insurance companies need to cooperate with multiple parties to jointly study climate risks and actively build and maintain a communication platform with public sector institutions, enterprises, academia, non-governmental organizations and citizens, Collaborative development to provide customers with innovative solutions.
