Climate change is a global trend that has highly complex and interconnected impacts, and understanding its relevance for life and health insurance requires expertise and a broad perspective. This series of papers by SCOR’s internal experts aims to support the readers in gaining a solid understanding of the key elements of the impact of climate change and enables them to draw conclusions for their own companies and situations. Parts one to three, giving the risk manager’s view, the medical director’s view, and the epidemiologist’s view, can be found at scor.com.

In this fourth part of the series, together with Iris Kwon, marketing actuary, and Katherine Wong, pricing actuary, we explore the relationship between climate change and mental health. Although often underestimated and not at the forefront of attention, the negative impact of climate change on emotional and psychological well-being can be significant. Interestingly, it turns out that the relative importance of the various impacts of climate change is very different for mental health compared to physical health.

Feedback loops that cause poor mental health have an impact on biometric risks, which makes it even more important to understand the subject.