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27th September 2023

Climate-Insurance Newslink Global Trends-Editor's Quarterly Highlights
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Climate-Editor's highlight extracts from Insurance Newslink articles in the last three months:
-At the IDF Summit 2023, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction(UNDRR), the Insurance Development Forum(IDF), the University of Oxford, and the GEM Foundation signed a new agreement to advance the Global Resilience Index Initiative(GRII) and establish a Global Resilience Hub to help countries, financial institutions and investors, map and quantify their current and future climate and disaster risks and demonstrate the benefits of investing in resilience-the collaboration will prevent leaders from ‘flying blind’ on physical climate risk and focus vital investments to areas of greatest need.
-The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC)toook an active part in the 58th session of the Subsidiary Bodies of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC)-throughout the conference, the IPCC focussed on delivering the main findings of the Synthesis Report and of the entire sixth assessment cycle. These efforts also included contributions to the Global Stocktake Technical Dialogues taking place during the conference. The Technical Dialogues were a prelude to the first Global Stocktake scheduled to take place at this year’s Conference of the Parties(COP28) meetings in Dubai in December.
-WTW announced a collaboration with global law firm Clyde & Co. Building on a long-standing relationship, WTW will offer Clyde & Co’s climate legal and risk expertise as part of its climate analytics and consulting offering to support clients in managing the impact of physical climate risks and their transition to net-zero-Sustained heat, floods and heavy rainfall could also see insurers hit with further increased costs, with subsidence related insurance costs swelling to over £1.9bn by 2030 according to new analysis by PwC.
-In the wake of recent record-breaking, non-tropical cyclone rainfalls in various regions across the US, increasing temperatures and climate change are exacerbating the risk of catastrophic flooding, according to Moody’s RMS. “Rising temperatures allow the atmosphere to hold more moisture, leading to extreme rainfall intensities and floods in areas far from floodplains and coastlines,” said Firas Saleh, Director of Product Management for Climate and Flood Risk, “and in addition to these climate-related challenges, aging infrastructure further compounds the vulnerability to these extreme events.”
-Industry experts believe insurers sticking to targets around both underwriting carbon-emitting projects and investing in polluting companies, industries, and funds is the most important thing they can do to fight climate change, as the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance(NZIA) drops the requirement for members to keep issuing targets amid leading players leaving the collaboration, according to a poll conducted by GlobalData.
-As the World Meteorological Organisation and others declared July 2023 the hottest month on record, Moody’s RMS offerred insights on the range of integrated risks and impacts related to the current high temperatures, this year’s El Niño effect, and more generally to climate.
-Insured losses from wildfires have doubled over the past 30 years and insurers face highest natural-catastrophe losses since 2011.
A new insurance sector report from Bloomberg Intelligence(BI0 estimated that insured losses from natural catastrophes in H1 2023 point to 2023 being the third straight year of weather-event claims topping $100bn, with much of these coming from secondary perils such as floods, hail and wildfires. All of the latter are becoming more frequent as global temperatures rise, noted BI.
-Lloyd’s announced the 12 teams that will join the 11th cohort of the Lloyd’s Lab, the InsurTech accelerator hub for developing innovative insurance products in the Lloyd’s market-following the success of the first regional theme in Cohort 10, the Lab announced ‘Asia-Pacific Climate Risk, Cyber and Sustainability’ as the new theme for Cohort 11. In addition, ‘Data & Models’ and ‘New Products’ will be carried forward, with each InsurTech being aligned with one of the three themes
-In an era of evolving challenges, pension providers and wealth managers need to navigate a crucial path by upholding environmental, social, and governance(ESG) principles. The rise in younger consumers embracing sustainable investments underscores the enduring significance of ESG commitments. With climate change concerns looming and a generational wealth transfer on the horizon, adhering to green-oriented investment strategies offers not only long-term benefits but also safeguards against potential repercussions for those who neglect ESG factors, says GlobalData.
-The global modelled insured average annual loss from natural catastrophes is $133bn, a new high captured in the latest analysis using Verisk’s extreme event solutions models-not only should the insurance industry be prepared to experience total insured losses from natural catastrophes well in excess of $100bn every year, but annual losses greater than $200bn are also plausible. These values are up significantly over the decade, according to the 2023 Global Modeled Catastrophe Losses Report published by Verisk.
-Lloyd’s announced a new collaboration with Moody’s Analytics to develop a solution that will help to quantify greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions across managing agents’ underwriting and investment portfolios. The solution being adopted will aid managing agents in meeting expected regulatory reporting requirements.

Climate Trends(1,381 mentions in Insurance Newslink)