H₂Tech (H₂T) sat down with Michael Kolodner (MK), Global Renewable Energy and U.S. Power Leader at Marsh Energy, to explore how businesses can manage risk in an evolving energy landscape. From hydrogen (H₂) infrastructure to carbon capture, Michael breaks down the unique risks facing the sector and how Marsh supports clients through policy shifts, emerging technologies, and complex supply chains.

H₂T: Please start by telling us about Marsh and your role with the company.

MK: I'm responsible for two areas. One, leadership around global renewable energy issues for clients, supporting colleagues around the world who are engaged in that space. Second, I’m responsible for our energy and power business in the U.S. Regarding our services, we are the largest intermediary and advocate for clients in the insurance market. I like to say, to keep it simple, we make insurance risk capital work for our clients. We also provide advisory services to clients. Sometimes, the best advice we can give isn’t about using insurance—but how not to use it. One of the things that we do is spend a lot of time focused on risk issues associated with our clients and help them find solutions. I like to think about it in terms of the risk management cycle: risk identification, analysis of those risks and consideration of treatment options (one of which might be insurance), how you make the decision around which type of approach to take and then how you execute and monitor the chosen approach. It is a continuous cycle, so we align our services to our clients around those core functions.

H₂T: Is this across the entire energy ecosystem, or does your business go beyond the energy industry?

MK: Marsh serves all companies, all clients; we do not discriminate in that regard Personally, in the U.S., my focus is on oil and gas, as well as power utility companies. We serve clients in every one of the six major subsectors across the energy and power space—from upstream oil and gas all the way to independent power and renewable energy development—and work with them across that whole spectrum.

H₂T: With government regulations and new policies to support the energy transition, how can Marsh Energy help businesses to navigate the uncertainty?

MK: There is an enormous amount of uncertainty, and our clients want a partner who can help them manage risk. Uncertainty and risk are 100% correlated. The less we know or the less confident we are, the more risk exists, and that manifests itself in several different ways. Traditionally, most folks think of insurance as primarily what you might do that could cause harm to somebody else (e.g., homeowners or auto). But for our corporate clients in energy and power, that’s just the simplest aspect of risk—they face a much broader and more dynamic risk ecosystem. It includes how their revenue models may be impacted by events occurring, not only to their own operations or within their own span of control, but also across the depth and breadth of their supply chain or with their major partners, for example. We really do cover the full ecosystem of risks, including those driven by uncertain policymaking and its operational impacts.

We do have some clients in the space who are officially nonprofits. I think the public power sector is a great example. So, everyone has goals and objectives. Our job is to help them manage risk more effectively so they can achieve those goals more confidently and outperform those who are less successful at managing risk. Right now, we are heavily focused on helping clients understand potential implications, particularly in the risk identification and risk analysis components. That is where we are spending a lot of time talking to clients, making sure they understand all the different risks that may arise as a result of uncertainty, then analyzing and quantifying the significance of the risk.

H₂T: So, to give me an example, what are some of the risks associated with carbon capture and storage (CCS)?

MK: That is a great one. If you think about CCS, one major risk is around what happens if you store it and it does not stay where you want it to be stored. You might say there are a number of things that can be impacted. One of them is what financial incentives you received to store it, and what happens if you took those incentives and it ends up not where it was intended to be? That is a risk, right? That is a liability risk, particularly because it could play out over many years or decades.

That is an example of something we spend time talking to clients about. We discuss how it is managed, and the extent financing is required. What I like to say is: no insurance, no risk management. You are definitely going to struggle with financing projects in that space. The biggest thing we think about is identifying all the risks associated with CCS. We then have to think through how to help our clients develop mitigation plans, think through and articulate what those mitigations are, what their plan is around how they are going to manage that risk, so that it can enable the flow of capital into those projects, particularly if they are being financed with partners and third parties are involved. Also, regulators and stakeholders in the community; everybody has a share of the risk, so everybody needs to know that it is being managed appropriately.

For more information, visit: https://h2-tech.com/podcasts/2025/03/navigating-risk-in-the-energy-transition-a-conversation-with-michael-kolodner-of-marsh-energy/