ABSTRACT: This article addresses three key issues set forth in the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' (NAIC) Climate Change & Global Warming Task Force charter: 1. Implications of climate change on the insurance sector 2. Insurers' knowledge of potential climate change impacts 3. Recommendations on steps that regulators could take to assure that they are adequately monitoring insurers' activities with regard to managing the financial condition and performance of insurance markets The physical and economic aspects of the first question are dealt with in a previous article in the journal Science, and are summarized here. (3) The closely related issue of insurance availability and affordability is handled in depth elsewhere. (4) The balance of this article treats the second two questions, and offers twelve specific recommendations for activities in which the NAIC can play a leadership role. I. INTRODUCTION: IMPLICATIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE FOR INSURERS AND THEIR CUSTOMERS A. Property and Business Interruption 1. Liability Risks B. Health and Healthcare Infrastructure II. THE STATE OF INSURERS' KNOWLEDGE AND ACTIVITIES ON CLIMATE CHANGE III. THE ROLE OF INSURANCE REGULATORS A. Stay current on the science B. Require that insurers collect and analyze more comprehensive data on weather-related losses and their insurance implications C. Raise the standards of practice for catastrophe modeling and create a non-propriety modeling and data-collection entity D. Support risk-based pricing based on improved understanding of climate-related risks in combination with insurer accountability and attention to availability and affordability issues E. Promote the development of climate friendly insurance products and premium incentives through model laws and/or regulations F. Take the lead on a coordinated national effort to improve disaster-resilience through the adoption, enforcement, and implementation of improved building codes G. Promote Rebuilding Right following losses H. Promote partnerships with policyholders for loss mitigation I. Safeguard reserves and surplus based on an understanding of climate change, and encourage prudent investments in technologies and industries that will be part of the solution J. Communicate industry needs and priorities to federal and local governments with lead responsibility for implementation K. Encourage or require public disclosure of insurer risk analysis of climate change L. Encourage or require insurers to minimize their own carbon footprint IV. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION: IMPLICATIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE FOR INSURERS AND THEIR CUSTOMERS The insurance sector serves as a national and, increasingly, global integrator of catastrophe costs across all sectors of the economy as well as a messenger of these impacts through the terms and price signals it projects to its customers. The insurance sector provides a critical function within the global economy by contributing to peace of mind for homeowners and the levels of certainty and risk spreading that businesses need in order to invest and grow. At various points in history, including the Great Dust Bowl of the 1930s, the urban riots of the 1960s, and terrorism today, watershed events or trends ushered in profound structural changes within the insurance industry. While entirely different in their specifics, each of these watersheds had in common an element of acute surprise followed by the subsequent realization that the future would be different from the past. Global warming is the next watershed of this type. The growing destructive power of extreme weather events coupled with increasing insured exposures poses a material financial challenge to insurers. …