Environmental insurance as a risk management tool
In the paper, the problematic aspects of diagnosing and rational management of environmental risks in modern socio-economic conditions are comprehensively investigated. In the course of the study, the main tools and methods for managing environmental risks at the present stage were analyzed, key problems of diagnosing, minimizing and hedging environmental risks were identified, measures were proposed to optimize modern mechanisms of the theory and practice of environmental risk management through the use of a wide range of types, forms and methods of environmental insurance. Environmental insurance, carried out as insurance of liability for accidental pollution of the environment, is aimed at ensuring environmental safety and compensation for losses of third parties (subject to the commercial interests of the insured), and property insurance is aimed only at compensating the losses of the insured. In this it differs from other types of insurance, for example, medical, although it would seem that it covers the same circle of persons called “third parties” in insurance as the latter. Losses, expressed, say, in the loss of public health, are determined in environmental insurance on completely different principles than in medical insurance. In the ecological field, it is necessary to identify the sources of harm and recipients with maximum reliability, and, depending on this, determine the tariff and compensation policy. Health insurance comes from a different premise: every enterprise that pays wages to its employees bears the financial burden of eliminating the losses associated with morbidity of the population, regardless of whether this enterprise causes harm.