A side note first: Another post quite recently claimed that insurers aren't refusing coverage totally, but merely reducing their exposure, since reinsurers are making demands like "no more than 30% of portfolio exposed to coal". (Double side note: I suppose some insurers set that at zero, for whatever reason.)<p>To the main point: What's peculiar about coal? I can see reasons why insurers might want to avoid or limit exposure to a particular class of risk. But what makes "coal" into a class of risk, in insurance terms? Why is coal a different class of risk than, say, mining or construction, which seem similar to me as naïve layman?<p>Whether insurers are reducing or avoiding this risk doesn't matter for this question.