Climate Change and Catastrophe Management in a Changing China: Government, Insurance and Alternatives

China is the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world and also suffers from devastating climate catastrophes. Increasingly, policymakers in China have come to realize that government alone cannot adequately prevent or defray climate-related disaster risks. This book contends that a better way to manage catastrophe risk in China is through private insurance rather than directly through the Chinese government. In addition, private insurance could function as a substitute for, or complement to, government regulation of catastrophe risks by causing policyholders to take greater precautions to reduce climate change risks.

This book’s unique contribution lies in explaining how private sector insurance could be harnessed to better protect China from climate change risks, addressing the shortcomings in China’s private sector when it comes to the incentive and capacity to provide catastrophe insurance. Following the dual principles of insurers acting as private risk regulators and the government acting as a last resort, this book proposes a multi-layered public-private catastrophe insurance partnership in China. It uses a thorough combination of law and economics methodology to analyze these issues.

Researchers, academics, and journalists writing on climate change in China will have a strong interest in this book, as will practitioners and policy-making bodies, Chinese government officials and agencies in insurance, finance and environmental regulation, private lawyers, private insurers, and global reinsurers.