Adequate Environmental Safety Performance as a Requirement for Insurability of Environmental Liability
Petrochemical industry is a highly risk industry with involve chemical reaction,hazardous material,flammable explosion and any other risk that can occur to the staff or the contractor for the company while doing their job or which could lead to a release of pollutants which pose a severe endangerment of neighbours or the environment.Technical and organisational measures to avoid and reduce environmental pollution are a matter of course in many enterprises.To protect the staff,the neighbourhood and the environment,companies must implement a host of environmental laws,as well as technical and official regulations.The number of legal regulations,but above all the official monitoring carried out in order to prevent detrimental impacts varies considerably from country to country.Not only a company”s geographical location but also its operational activities and size are decisive for the scope of application of environmental protection regulations.Fortunately,there are more and more companies that not only strive to meet the statutory requirements but also set voluntary targets aimed at improving the environmental situation at a site.For insurers who are risk partners of the operators,the most important thing is a functioning system of plant safety and emergency response management,which should be incorporated in an integrated Safety Health and Environmental Management System (SHE) or similar management system.In particular,there should be a plan in place for the prevention of environmental accidents that contains the overall targets and general principles for limiting the risk of accidents.Companies that either strive to improve plant safety and emergency response management and implement this as part of their SHE improve their environmental liability risk.SHEs give those in charge of organisations an overview and control over operating procedures that was not previously available.As a result,mistakes are minimised,legal certainty is increased and the environmental risk is improved.There is a residual risk for the environment and the public which varies from place to place,and is dependent on three aspects:the relevant enforcement by the authorities,social acceptance,and,decisively,the environmental safety performance of the companies in question.In general,the scope of third-party insurance coverage is limited to unintended sudden and accidental incidents.Incidents outside the scope of this definition are regarded as having occurred within the normal sphere of a given activity.Losses caused by authorised emissions or authorised impacts on the environment should be attributed to the competent authority and is thus generally irrelevant to insurance.Also emissions that continuously exceed authorised limits are indicating a management style at odds with a responsible attitude towards the environment.Insurance is no substitute for poor risk management and not intended to apply in such cases.The risk of claims being lodged against a company by third parties or authorities for causing damages is never zero,as operational accidents can never be prevented altogether,nor can emissions into the air and water be reduced to zero.
environmental liability historical contamination insurance industrial accidents pollution safety performance
Walter J.Roos
Munich Reinsurance Company K(o)niginstr.107, 80791 Munich, Germany
国内会议
兰州
英文
69-78
2012-10-09（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）