Environmental’s Evolution

The current appetite for Environmental coverage among carriers couldn’t be more unlike the insurance market a generation ago.

P&C insurers in the 1980s were running away from all Pollution exposures following years of legal battles over how broadly policy language in older General Liability policies covered Pollution losses. After enough losses in the courtroom, insurers adopted an absolute Pollution exclusion, and excluded Pollution-related losses in other coverages.

Until around 2008, only a handful of insurers wrote separate Environmental coverage.