The insurance impacts of Biden's '180-degree' approach
Partner Mark Leimkuhler recently spoke with Insurance Business about the new administration's approach to climate change and the implications for the insurance industry.
Circling back to the potential impacts of the Biden administration in this arena, Mark Leimkuhler, partner at Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss PLLC, told Insurance Business that the transition from Trump's “non-recognition of the impacts of climate change” to the Biden team’s expected “very different, almost 180-degree, polar opposite approach” will have mixed impacts on the insurance industry.
While he predicts that the changes to climate change action between administrations will end up being more limited than some expect, since Biden will have only a narrow majority in Congress, he pointed to several notable trends to watch for.
First of all, “The insurance industry has been at the forefront of efforts to have policymakers recognize and react to climate change because property insurers are routinely being asked to pick up the pieces from the results of climate change impacts such as more severe weather patterns,” explained Leimkuhler. The Biden administration is expected to promote some climate initiatives that the industry has been advocating.
Since the industry has been pressing for a more proactive role on the part of government, insurers will likely welcome what are expected to be efforts to instill climate change mitigation measures into legislation and/or executive orders. Leimkuhler added that the US is likewise more likely to see partnerships between government and the insurance industry in an effort to collect data that would allow for a shift away from higher risk activities.
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