Description

China is the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world and also suffers from devastating climate catastrophes. Increasingly, policymakers in China have come to realize that government alone cannot adequately prevent or defray climate‐related disaster risks. This lecture contends that a better way to manage catastrophe risk in China is through private insurance rather than directly through the Chinese government. In addition, private insurance could function as a substitute for, or complement to, government regulation of catastrophe risks by causing policyholders to take greater precautions to reduce climate change risks.

This lecture is based on Qihao’s new book published by Edward Elgar, “Climate Change and Catastrophe Management in a Changing China”. This book’s unique contribution lies in explaining how private sector insurance could be harnessed to better protect China from climate change risks, addressing the shortcomings in China’s private sector when it comes to the incentive and capacity to provide catastrophe insurance. Following the dual principles of insurers acting as private risk regulators and the government acting as a last resort, this book proposes a multi‐layered public–private catastrophe insurance partnership in China. It uses a thorough combination of law and economics methodology to analyse these issues.

About The Speaker

He Qihao is the Associate Professor & Deputy Director of China‐America Law Institute, China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) after completing his S.J.D. program, specialising in climate change and the sustainable distribution of catastrophic risk, at the University Of Connecticut School Of Law in the United States. Qihao received his LL.M. degree in Insurance Law with honors from the Law School in 2012. Previously, he studied at the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) in Beijing, China, where he earned both his master’s degree and bachelor’s degree in law.