Climate Change And Product Liability

Search ‘climate change and insurance’ on the internet, and there will be no lack of information on the intersection between global warming and property insurance.

It is also not hard to learn about the impact climate change is having on the D&O line of business.

However, one area that is overlooked, in relation to climate change, is the product liability insurance space. That is slowly changing, and interest will most likely accelerate in the coming years.

Wrapped up in broader social policy conversations like environmental justice, social equity and social inflation, climate change risk is emerging within the product liability discipline in a pattern seen previously with mass tort litigation.

An emerging risk in the context of product liability insurance usually follows a course starting with the publication of scientific or academic reports indicating a causal link between a particular condition (i.e. climate change) and property damage or bodily injury to a third party. As these works attract attention, litigation begins to accelerate.