Why all eyes are on insurance in climate risk conversations

One of our key takeaways from Climate Week NYC in 2025 was that the insurance industry is taking a more central role in conversations about climate risk.

As climate change causes more frequent and severe extreme weather events, some insurers are increasing premiums or pulling out of certain regions, with implications for policy and the financial markets.

To learn more about the changing landscape for insurance, we sat down on the sidelines of Climate Week NYC with Martin Powell, Group Sustainability Director at global insurance and asset management group AXA.

"A 2-degree world is still insurable, but it's going to be unaffordable for many, many people," Martin says. "As we head towards that sort of temperature increase, our job is to try and predict and assess what that's going to mean for society in five years' time and do what we can today to reduce those impacts."

The urgency is growing to adopt new strategies and practices to assess these climate-related risks, and we heard at Climate Week NYC why this is particularly true in the US homeowners insurance market.

Heather Zichal, the Global Head of Sustainability at JPMorganChase, says the future of homeowners insurance is "very much front and center" for the largest bank in the US.

"Whether you're worried in the state of Florida about sea-level rise, or you are in California and you're worried about wildfires, there's a very healthy recognition that we are going to collectively need new products, services, and policies to help meet that moment," Heather says.

We also speak to Kingsley Greenland, Head of Strategic Partnerships and Corporate Development at Verisk, a company that works with the global insurance industry to provide data and analytics. He points to the difference between big banks and their smaller peers when it comes to assessing climate risk.

"The largest banks...in a way, they also have the least risk because they're globally diversified and can take the hit," he says. "It seems to me like it's these really small banks, your credit unions, your small community bankers that retain a lot of this risk and don't have now — nor can we expect them to — really have this full suite of climate risk analytics in their portfolio that would trickle down to their investment decisions."

Read S&P Global's key takeaways from Climate Week NYC: 5 Climate Week NYC takeaways setting the scene for decision-making in 2026 | S&P Global

Read an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis of US insurance rate and rule product filings: At London Climate Week, a bold call for insurers to tackle climate risks | S&P Global

Listen to the full interview with Heather Zichal: How the biggest bank in the US is approaching climate risk | S&P Global

Learn more about S&P Global Sustainable1's Physical Climate Risk data.

This piece was published by S&P Global Sustainable1 and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.

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