diff --git a/xarray_esgf/client.py b/xarray_esgf/client.py
index 8ef0115..10022ae 100644
--- a/xarray_esgf/client.py
+++ b/xarray_esgf/client.py
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@ class Client:
     esgpull_path: str | Path | None = None
     index_node: str | None = None
     retries: int = 0
+    verify_ssl: bool = False
 
     @cached_property
     def _client(self) -> Esgpull:
@@ -64,7 +65,7 @@ def _client(self) -> Esgpull:
             install=True,
             load_db=False,
         )
-        client.config.download.disable_ssl = True
+        client.config.download.disable_ssl = not self.verify_ssl
         if self.index_node is not None:
             client.config.api.index_node = self.index_node
         return client
@@ -138,6 +139,7 @@ def open_dataset(
                 chunks=-1,
                 engine="h5netcdf",
                 drop_variables=drop_variables,
+                storage_options={"verify_ssl": self.verify_ssl},
             )
             grouped_objects[file.dataset_id].append(ds.drop_encoding())
 
diff --git a/xarray_esgf/engine.py b/xarray_esgf/engine.py
index 954a7c2..67864bf 100644
--- a/xarray_esgf/engine.py
+++ b/xarray_esgf/engine.py
@@ -20,12 +20,14 @@ def open_dataset(  # type: ignore[override]
         download: bool = False,
         show_progress: bool = True,
         retries: int = 0,
+        verify_ssl: bool = False,
     ) -> Dataset:
         client = Client(
             selection=filename_or_obj,
             esgpull_path=esgpull_path,
             index_node=index_node,
             retries=retries,
+            verify_ssl=verify_ssl,
         )
         return client.open_dataset(
             concat_dims=concat_dims,