The term environmental insurance includes first-party (property) insurance and third-party (liability) insurance, all of which are aimed at managing pollution-related risks. Among them, the third party liability insurance products mainly include: environmental damage liability (EIL) insurance in specific places, which is also commonly known as pollution liability insurance. Insure the third party's legal liability for compensation caused by the sudden leakage of pollutants from the insured's specific place, including personal injury, property loss, cleaning-up expenses and defense expenses; Contractor's environmental damage liability insurance, which covers the completed project liability and contract liability caused by accidental pollution accidents when the contractor carries out specific engineering operations and activities on the project site; In addition, there are professional environmental risk errors and omissions insurance policies and general liability insurance policies for asbestos and lead removal contractors.
Environmental insurance products belonging to the first-party property insurance mainly include: environmental restoration policy, which mainly meets the insurance needs of lending financial institutions when the lender cannot repay the loan and the mortgaged property has incurred environmental pollution cleaning expenses; Restoring the cost stop-loss policy is helpful to the transaction of contaminated property and prevents the failure of the transaction due to the excessive estimation error of cleaning cost between buyers and sellers. The environmental pollution comprehensive insurance policy meets the different requirements of the insured for pollution accident damage compensation, enjoys certain advantages in coverage and cost, and avoids the "grey zone" disputes within the coverage to the greatest extent.
The abundant environmental insurance products and active environmental insurance market in the United States benefit from the perfect environmental legislation in the United States. The milestone of American environmental legislation is the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) passed in 1969. Since then, similar environmental protection laws have emerged one after another. With the intensification of environmental protection activities, the American government has promulgated more bold and complex environmental protection laws. Laws of great significance to environmental risk management and the development of environmental insurance are 1976 Law on Resource Protection and Compensation (RCRA) and 1980 Law on Extensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability.
The Resource Protection and Compensation Act is the legal basis for the US Environmental Protection Agency to supervise harmful substances from cradle to grave. This law tracks the whole process of garbage from generation to abandonment to ensure that garbage will not be littered in the end. RCRA is the first environmental law that requires the license holder of hazardous substances processing, storage and disposal to provide proof of economic compensation ability. According to these regulations, the operators and owners of the above-mentioned enterprises must provide evidence to prove that the enterprises have the economic ability to clean up the environmental damage caused in the course of operation and compensate the victims for personal injury and property losses. Enterprises must maintain a valid certificate for 30 years. The holder of the Dangerous Goods Business License can provide the required certificates in the following ways, including special opinions on the insurance policy, performance bond, letter of credit, cash kept by a third party, self-protection identity or any other certificate acceptable to the manager. And general enterprises will choose to insure environmental liability insurance.
The extensive environmental response, compensation and liability law (CERCLA) aims to solve the waste problem of abandoned or unattended waste disposal sites, mainly including the environmental damage caused by some old garbage dumps. CERCLA legislation follows the basic principle of polluter pays. For the garbage dumps that are beyond the scope of fund cleaning, the potential responsible persons shall be determined first, and these persons or organizations shall be responsible for the cleaning expenses of these garbage dumps until the real responsible persons are determined according to law. Potential responsible persons may include current and past owners, operators and lessees of garbage dumps; Producers and transporters of garbage dumps and any relevant personnel who arrange waste disposal. In addition, the parent company may not escape the blame, the company's heirs, company managers and controlling shareholders may bear the responsibility in their own names, and even the bankrupt may bear the responsibility under CERCLA.
CERCLA implements the responsibility of "traceability, strictness and joint and several". When determining the legal liability, the Superfund does not consider the actual attention of polluters in the process of waste disposal. In addition, if the damage is inseparable (in general), any potential responsible party may be fully responsible for the total amount of compensation, regardless of the actual size of his personal responsibility.
RCRA's requirements for proof of economic compensation ability and CERCLA's requirements for compensation for clean-up costs cover a wide range, resulting in a large number of complex liability risks at all levels of the American economy. The increasing market demand for environmental insurance has stimulated more insurance companies to enter the market. 1982, the United States established the pollution liability insurance underwriting consortium-the pollution liability insurance association. CERCLA has caused countless potential responsible persons to claim compensation from their insurance companies with CGL production insurance policies purchased decades ago. In addition, the underwriting technology of pollution liability insurance is immature and the number of policyholders is insufficient. In 1980s, American environmental insurance market almost collapsed. However, the formulation of American ISO 1986 CGL standard policy has greatly reversed the market situation. The exclusion clause stipulates that no matter whether the pollution loss is accidental or gradual, this insurance will not compensate any personal injury or property loss caused by pollutant discharge. This absolute pollution exclusion liability leads to the market demand for environmental damage liability insurance. In addition, ISO has also developed a claim-based insurance policy, which overcomes the "long tail" of insurance policies and effectively protects insurers.
Under the above-mentioned market changes, coupled with the orderly promotion of environmental legislation in the United States, the gradual improvement of loss data, the progress of environmental insurance underwriting technology and the progress of loss prevention and claim management technology, the environmental damage liability insurance market is booming. In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was promulgated in 2002, which emphasized the evaluation of corporate environmental responsibility and information disclosure. In order to meet this requirement, enterprises have to seek more insurance protection. Environmental insurance is not only used by enterprises to fulfill compliance obligations, but also has more added value. In today's society, corporate social responsibility and sustainable development are emphasized. The introduction of Dow Jones Sustainable Development Index shows that investors will comprehensively consider the three criteria of "economy, environment and society" when making investment decisions. Buying environmental insurance can undoubtedly show the innovative ability and strong sustainability of enterprise management, and greatly enhance the confidence of investors. At present, all kinds of environmental insurance in the American insurance market can provide enterprises with the required proof of economic compensation ability, and can provide financing guarantee for most of the risks related to super funds in the future.
Not long ago, an insurance company in China introduced site pollution liability insurance for the first time. The Guiding Opinions on Environmental Pollution Liability Insurance jointly issued by the State Environmental Protection Administration and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission indicates that the construction of China's environmental insurance system has started. The author thinks that the healthy development of environmental liability insurance in China depends on the perfection and refinement of environmental protection legislation, the progress of environmental science and technology and the enhancement of underwriting capacity in the insurance market. The perfection and refinement of legislation is the key. From the experience of the United States, we can see that if there is no corresponding environmental legislation, or if the environmental legislation is too light and too loose on the liability of polluters, there will be no effective demand for environmental liability insurance. Last year, nearly 100 well-known multinational companies had serious pollution violations in their operations in China. Comparing their good reputation in environmental protection in developed countries, while condemning these enterprises for not taking due social responsibilities, we should first review our overly relaxed environmental protection legal environment.