Climate change & climate risk related news

The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) has published its response to the European Commission’s Climate Resilience Framework, calling for the use of insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bonds as an effective way that insurers within the Union can access new capital to back climate-related policies.

The main four parametric natural disaster insurance risk pools have committed to a unique collaboration, which will see them explore the creation of a joint risk finance and reinsurance platform.

FERMA, the Federation of European Risk Management Associations has urged the European Commission to adopt a collaborative approach to the climate resilience framework it plans to introduce later this year, calling for the use of catastrophe bonds, insurance-linked securities (ILS) and parametric products.

With global warming said likely to drive a rise in the frequency and severity of natural disasters and certain extreme weather events, the re/insurance industry faces a shifting landscape. However, a recent analysis by Solidum Partners AG suggests that the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market is uniquely positioned as a key capital source to support re/insurers.

Global climate risk solutions platform Arbol and Pollen Systems have teamed up to bring to market a first-of-its-kind product that combines parametric insurance with multiple real-time data sources, that are set to address long-standing challenges in agricultural and climate risk coverage.

As per a new report from Morningstar DBRS, climate change is expected to be a meaningful primary long-term driver of reinsurance volumes. However, while the reinsurance market is currently at overcapacity, this is setting the stage for softer conditions in the medium term, the analysis states.

Global reinsurance company Hannover Re sees an opportunity to further develop the integration of resiliency features within catastrophe bonds, having received positive feedback from the market and clients since the transaction for the North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association (NCIUA), Executive Board Member Silke Sehm has told Artemis.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Protection (UNDRR) has published details of a proposal for a high-level Disaster Resilience Adaptation Financing (DRAF) structure that features an insurance-linked securities (ILS) vehicle, to support disaster risk insurance coverage and resilience adaptation financing.

In a recent report on the threat flood disasters pose to the Netherlands as a country particularly vulnerable to climate risks, KPMG highlights the potential for catastrophe bonds to be an instrument that can help in maintaining the insurability of climate risks in an increasingly challenging environment.

Underscoring the potential impacts of climate change across the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, ILS specialists at global asset management group Schroders have suggested that ILS managers should recalibrate risk assessments to reflect the climate change that has already occurred, and not just long-term projections.