London, UK, 22 June 2026 — The Forum for Insurance Transition (FIT) today launched Insuring and Investing in the Transition: How insurers and reinsurers can turn the Total Balance Sheet Transition Plan Principles into practice, a new guide designed to help insurers and reinsurers implement credible, organisation-wide transition plans that link underwriting and investment portfolios.
The publication is the fourth report in the FIT Transition Plan Project, the only global transition planning initiative developed specifically for the insurance industry. Building on earlier FIT guidance, the report translates the six Total Balance Sheet (TBS) Principles into practical approaches for governance, strategic planning, risk management, underwriting and investment decision-making, performance management and disclosure, helping insurers embed transition planning across the balance sheet.
As physical climate risks intensify and transition-related risks continue to reshape markets, regulation and investment landscapes, insurers face increasing pressure to ensure that transition considerations are reflected consistently across business functions. The report responds to this challenge by providing practical guidance for moving from transition planning ambition to implementation.
Recognizing insurers’ distinctive role as risk managers, risk carriers and long-term institutional investors, the report introduces the concept of cognitive consonance—a consistent internal logic that aligns underwriting and investment decisions around a shared strategic ambition. Rather than prescribing identical approaches across business functions, cognitive consonance enables underwriting and investment activities to be guided by the same transition rationale while respecting their distinct objectives, mandates and operating constraints. The report identifies this as a key enabler of coherent and credible Total Balance Sheet transition planning.
Insuring and Investing in the Transition was launched during the UNEP Transition Insurance Series, held ahead of the UNEP FI Global Roundtable during London Climate Action Week. The event convened insurers, regulators, supervisors, sustainability standard-setters, academics and civil society representatives to discuss how the insurance industry can contribute to a resilient and sustainable transition of the real economy.
The FIT Transition Plan Project
The FIT Transition Plan Project was established to develop insurance-specific guidance that reflects the unique business model of insurers and reinsurers. Together, the four reports provide a comprehensive framework to support insurers in developing, implementing and disclosing transition plans that enhance long-term business resilience and company value, contribute to financial stability, and support the transition of the real economy.
- Insuring and Investing in the Transition (2026): How insurers and reinsurers can turn the Total Balance Sheet Transition Plan Principles into practice
- A Total Balance Sheet Transition (2025): A holistic transition plan guide linking the underwriting and investment portfolios of insurers and reinsurers
- Underwriting the Transition (2025): A deep-dive transition plan guide for insurance and reinsurance underwriting portfolios
- Closing the Gap (2024): The emerging global agenda of transition plans and the need for insurance-specific guidance
FIT Transition Plan guidance is developed through a global, multi-stakeholder process convened by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The guidance is intended to help insurers develop transition plans that are credible, proportionate and decision-useful, while remaining responsive to their specific business models, geographies and regulatory contexts.