Insurers rethink how they assess environmental degradation and ESG risk

Insurers have long bundled pollution liability into one-size-fits-all environmental policies. But as regulation tightens and ESG expectations grow, that model is losing relevance fast.

“ESG regulations change and have a very big impact and a widening impact on our clients’ regulatory and compliance requirements,” said Christine Collins, head of casualty at HDI Global.

The term "impairment" signals a shift. Unlike short-term pollutants – vapour, smoke, discharge – impairment deals with lasting damage to land or ecosystems. “It implies that the site is degraded in some way, degraded through an environmental condition,” said Collins. That distinction is not just semantic; it reshapes how underwriters assess risk and how companies manage exposure.

Allan Truong (pictured), executive underw