Two-thirds of regional brokers offer no climate risk guidance to clients – Ecclesiastical

National brokers are taking the lead when advising clients about climate risks and the impact of climate change, while many regional and provincial brokers are failing to offer this advice, according to new research from specialist insurer Ecclesiastical, published on 2 June 2025.

The insurer’s annual survey of 250 commercial lines brokers, conducted in March 2025, revealed that 65% of national brokers in the UK now provide climate related guidance to clients. In comparison, two-thirds of regional and provincial firms offer no guidance at all to clients on this theme.

Dave Carey, intermediary managing director at Ecclesiastical, said: “There’s a clear disparity between the national brokers that are leading the way and smaller regional brokers, which may reflect the more corporate nature of the [national brokers’] clients.”

Among national brokers, 39% said climate risk is integrated into wider risk management discussions with their clients, while one-third make sure to share climate linked news and developments with customers.

A further 23% of national brokers discuss insurers’ climate positions with end clients and 21% provide advice on how clients can reduce their direct environmental impact.

Despite this activity, just 9% of all brokers polled said they felt confident advising clients about their climate risks – the same proportion that said this in last year’s survey – suggesting that further training and education is needed across the sector.

Shifting client expectations

Ecclesiastical’s research found that brokers are seeing growing interest from clients in climate credentials – both their own and those of their insurer partners.

Around 15% of all brokers surveyed agreed that clients were more likely to do business with a broker that had a strong climate position – up 6% from 2024’s research result. The same percentage of brokers said clients were more likely to favour insurers that took a strong climate stance.

Meanwhile, 12% of brokers said they were more likely to place business with insurers that had robust environmental credentials – a 2% increase from last year.

Internal action

The majority (89%) of broker respondents said they were taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint – a 14% increase from 2024.

Most (84%) said reducing their climate impact was the right thing to do. Other motivations for taking this type of action included cost reduction (50%), improving reputation (41%), building a sustainable supply chain (32%) and maintaining a competitive advantage (27%).

Common initiatives that brokers are undertaking to reduce their carbon footprint include office recycling (64%), reducing energy consumption (49%), minimising business travel (36%) and switching to electric or hybrid company vehicles (30%).

However, momentum appears to have stagnated when setting long-term net zero targets – only 16% of brokers have done this, the same as in 2024.

A lack of resource was the most cited barrier (49%) against setting longer-term climate targets, followed by cost (28%). Nearly a third (31%) of respondents – mainly among provincial and regional brokers – said they had no interest in becoming net zero, while others admitted they did not understand what was required to achieve net zero status.

The percentage of brokers measuring their carbon footprint also declined year-on-year to 9% in 2025 – down from 16% last year – while just 4% of respondents said they planned to start measuring this in the future.