IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jjrfmx/v18y2025i8p411-d1709712.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Financial Stability of Insurance Companies

Author

Listed:
  • Silvia Bressan

    (Faculty of Economics and Management, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, 39100 Bozen-Bolzano, Italy)

Abstract

The recent losses and damages due to climate change have destabilized the insurance industry. As global warming is one of the most critical aspects of climate change, it is essential to investigate to what extent greenhouse gas emissions affect the financial stability of insurers. Insurers typically do not emit substantial greenhouse gases directly, while their underwriting and investment activities play a substantial role in enabling companies that do. This article uses panel data regressions to analyze companies in all insurance segments and in all geographic regions of the world from 2004 to 2023. The main finding is that insurers that increase their greenhouse gas emissions become financially unstable. This result is consistent in all three scopes (scope 1, scope 2, and scope 3) of emissions. Furthermore, the findings reveal that this impact is related to reserves and reinsurance. Specifically, reserves increase with greenhouse gas emissions, while premiums ceded to reinsurers decline. Thus, high-emissions insurers retain a significant share of carbon risk and eventually become financially weak. The results encourage several policy recommendations, highlighting the need for instruments that improve the assessment and disclosure of insurers’ carbon footprints. This is crucial to achieving environmental targets and improving the stability of both the insurance market and the economic system.

Suggested Citation

  • Silvia Bressan, 2025. "Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Financial Stability of Insurance Companies," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-16, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:18:y:2025:i:8:p:411-:d:1709712
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/18/8/411/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/18/8/411/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chao‐Chun Leng & Ursina B. Meier, 2006. "Analysis of multinational underwriting cycles in property‐liability insurance," Journal of Risk Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 7(2), pages 146-159, March.
    2. Philipp Krueger & Zacharias Sautner & Laura T Starks, 2020. "The Importance of Climate Risks for Institutional Investors," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(3), pages 1067-1111.
    3. Silvia Bressan & Sabrina Du, 2024. "The Effect of Environmental Damage Costs on the Performance of Insurance Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-17, September.
    4. Chao-Chun Leng & Ursina B. Meier, 2006. "Analysis of multinational underwriting cycles in property-liability insurance," Journal of Risk Finance, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 7(2), pages 146-159, March.
    5. Chabot, Miia & Bertrand, Jean-Louis, 2023. "Climate risks and financial stability: Evidence from the European financial system," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    6. repec:eme:mfppss:v:41:y:2015:i:5:p:507-525 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Fiordelisi, Franco & Marqués-Ibañez, David, 2013. "Is bank default risk systematic?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2000-2010.
    8. Perera, Kasun & Kuruppuarachchi, Duminda & Kumarasinghe, Sriyalatha & Suleman, Muhammad Tahir, 2023. "The impact of carbon disclosure and carbon emissions intensity on firms' idiosyncratic volatility," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    9. Sreedhar T. Bharath & Tyler Shumway, 2008. "Forecasting Default with the Merton Distance to Default Model," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(3), pages 1339-1369, May.
    10. Ali, Mohsin & Azmi, Wajahat & Kowsalya, V. & Rizvi, Syed Aun R., 2023. "Interlinkages between stability, carbon emissions and the ESG disclosures: Global evidence from banking industry," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    11. Renbao Chen & Kie Ann Wong, 2004. "The Determinants of Financial Health of Asian Insurance Companies," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 71(3), pages 469-499, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huang, Xiaowei & Cheng, Ge & Zhang, Man, 2025. "Climate change risk and real estate prices—Micro evidence from coastal cities in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Pasiouras, Fotios & Gaganis, Chrysovalantis, 2013. "Regulations and soundness of insurance firms: International evidence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(5), pages 632-642.
    3. Chen, Zhenzhu & Li, Li & Tang, Yao, 2024. "Weather, credit, and economic fluctuations: Evidence from China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 406-422.
    4. Pongsak Luangaram & Yuthana Sethapramote & Kannika Thampanishvong & Gazi Salah Uddin, 2024. "Climate Risk and Financial Stability: A Systemic Risk Perspective from Thailand," PIER Discussion Papers 224, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Pham, Linh & Kamal, Javed Bin, 2024. "Blessings or curse: How do media climate change concerns affect commodity tail risk spillovers?," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 34(C).
    6. Hong, Jifeng & Kazakis, Pantelis & Strieborny, Martin, 2024. "Green Bond Issuance by Firms, External Monitoring, and Probability of Default: An Empirical Research Based on Green Policies," MPRA Paper 123049, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Sclip, Alex & Girardone, Claudia & Beltrame, Federico & Paltrinieri, Andrea, 2021. "Bank risks and lending outcomes: Evidence from QE," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    8. Owusu, Freeman Brobbey & Abdullah, Mohammad & Lee, Chi-Chuan & Gyeke-Dako, Agyapomaa, 2025. "Firm carbon risk exposure and financial stability," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    9. Lai, Fujun & Cheng, Xianli & Li, An & Xiong, Deping & Li, Yunzhong, 2025. "Does flood risk affect the implied cost of equity capital?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    10. Park, Dojoon & Kang, Yong Joo & Lee, Jiyoon, 2023. "Carbon intensity, default risk, and investors’ attention to environment: Evidence from South Korea," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 1104-1121.
    11. Jia Liao & Yun Zhan & Yu Yuan, 2024. "Top management team stability and corporate default risk: The moderating effects of industry competition and strategic deviance," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 45(2), pages 809-827, March.
    12. Catherine Bruneau & Nadia Sghaier, 2008. "Les cycles de souscription de l’assurance non vie en France," Working Papers hal-04140756, HAL.
    13. Chen, Jie & Hill, Paula, 2013. "The impact of diverse measures of default risk on UK stock returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5118-5131.
    14. repec:uii:journl:v:9:y:2017:i:2:p:150-158 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Nguyen, Harvey & Pham, Anh Viet & Pham, Man Duy (Marty) & Pham, Mia Hang, 2025. "Climate change and corporate credit worthiness: International evidence," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    16. Sedar Olmez & Akhil Ahmed & Keith Kam & Zhe Feng & Alan Tua, 2023. "Exploring the Dynamics of the Specialty Insurance Market Using a Novel Discrete Event Simulation Framework: a Lloyd's of London Case Study," Papers 2307.05581, arXiv.org.
    17. Neophytos Lambertides & Dimitris Tsouknidis, 2024. "Climate regulation costs and firms’ distress risk," Financial Markets, Institutions & Instruments, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(1), pages 3-30, February.
    18. Ruey-Ching Hwang, 2013. "Forecasting credit ratings with the varying-coefficient model," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(12), pages 1947-1965, December.
    19. Caroline Flammer & Michael W. Toffel & Kala Viswanathan, 2021. "Shareholder activism and firms' voluntary disclosure of climate change risks," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(10), pages 1850-1879, October.
    20. Chen, Peimin & Wu, Chunchi, 2014. "Default prediction with dynamic sectoral and macroeconomic frailties," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 211-226.
    21. Giordani, Paolo & Jacobson, Tor & Schedvin, Erik von & Villani, Mattias, 2014. "Taking the Twists into Account: Predicting Firm Bankruptcy Risk with Splines of Financial Ratios," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 1071-1099, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:18:y:2025:i:8:p:411-:d:1709712. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.