14 November 2017: Over the course of the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 23) to the UNFCCC, UN agencies, international organizations and stakeholders launched numerous initiatives, projects and partnerships seeking to enhance climate action across various sectors and industries. Risk management and transfer-related initiatives announced at the UN Climate Change Conference include a risk transfer information hub, a climate insurance initiative and a programme to help investors better manage climate risks.

The UNFCCC Secretariat launched a Clearing House for Risk Transfer. It will serve as a repository for information on insurance and risk transfer, in order to facilitate the efforts of Parties to develop and implement comprehensive risk management strategies. The online window aims to help vulnerable countries find affordable insurance and solutions to avoid risk from disasters like floods and droughts. A global partnership of the Group of 7 (G7), the Group of 20 (G20) and the Vulnerable 20 (V20) is contributing to the initiative. [Clearing House for Risk Transfer] [Clearing House for Risk Transfer Website] [Clearing House for Risk Transfer Launch Announcement by UNFCCC Secretariat]

The new phase of the InsuResilience Global Partnership aims to supply insurance to an additional 400 million poor and vulnerable people by 2020.

A COP 23 Presidency event, titled ‘Towards a resilient future: Frontiers of risk sharing,’ launched a higher ambition phase of the InsuResilience Global Partnership for Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance Solutions, aiming to provide vulnerable countries with financial protection to manage climate risks. The new phase aims to supply insurance to an additional 400 million poor and vulnerable people by 2020. At the launch, Germany pledged US$125 million to the initiative, which follows the £30 million commitment made by the UK in July 2017. [InsuResilience Website] [UNFCCC Press Release on InsuResilience Launch] [UNFCCC Announcement of the Launch] [COP 23 Presidency Event Agenda]

The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), the “investor voice on climate solutions in Europe,” confirmed that it is building an in-depth Investor Practices Programme to help asset owners and managers better assess and manage both climate risk and opportunity, and to report on their actions more effectively. The Programme will initially have three key work streams: governance; strategic tools and metrics for analyzing and integrating climate risks and opportunities across all asset classes; and an ongoing dialogue among IIGCC’s growing membership of asset owners and managers about latest developments in climate disclosure.

Speaking at COP 23, IIGCC CEO Stephanie Pfeifer emphasized the role of “robust disclosure,” sufficient to ensure that financial markets can price climate-related risk correctly, in helping realize the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change, ensure a smooth transition to a low carbon economy, and bend the global emissions curve.

In July 2017, in a letter signed by 390 investors representing more than US$22 trillion in assets, the IIGCC and five other investor groups urged G7 and G20 Governments to fully implement the Paris Agreement. [UNFCCC Press Release] [Letter from Global Investors to Governments of the G20 Nations]

Prior to the UN Climate Change Conference, UN Environment (UNEP) convened an annual meeting of the Sustainable Insurance Forum (SIF) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 27-28 October 2018. The Forum brought together insurance regulators from Australia, Brazil, France, Morocco, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa and the UK, as well as the US federal states of California and Washington, to develop guidance enabling insurance firms to respond effectively to climate risks. SIF participants reviewed the first draft of a document that will lay the groundwork for the development of practical tools and training materials for supervisors to encourage improvements in the ways insurance firms consider and disclose information about climate risks. [UN Environment Press Release] [SIF Events Webpage]