Flooding is among the leading climatic threats to people’s livelihoods, affecting development prospects worldwide – and floods can also reverse years of progress in poverty reduction and development. While the threat is already substantial, climate change and rapid urbanization in flood zones are likely to further drive up flood risks. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report affirms the urgency of addressing the intensifying impacts of climate change and ensuring the adaptation and resilience of the most vulnerable.
In October 2020, we presented a working paper that offered insight into global flood risk exposure and its intersection with poverty. Now, using updated state-of-the-art flood data, our analysis just published in Nature Communications, estimates that 1.81 billion people face significant flood risk worldwide, substantially higher than the 1.47 billion estimated in our initial study. Our updated study uses more accurate data on fluvial, pluvial, and coastal hazards, as well as subnational poverty. It also estimates that 170 million extremely poor people are facing flood risk and its devastating long-term consequences. Together, these findings provide alarming insights into the scale of people’s exposure and their vulnerabilities to flood hazards. A few of our key findings:
Financial losses from natural disasters continue to rise, with developing countries and their low-income populations feeling the greatest effects.
Weather-related losses and damages alone have risen from an annual average of about $50 billion in the 1980s to close to $200 billion over the last decade. Climate change could potentially push 100 million more people back into poverty over the next 15 years.
The less visible financial impact on the poorest is often the most detrimental and persistent. This can include lifelong and irreversible harm such as loss of access to education or stunting from malnutrition. The cost of disasters does not have to be so devastating. Proactive financial planning can help countries protect livelihoods and investments. Financial protection policies and instruments can support Governments to act as effective risk managers, rather than emergency borrowers. These innovative learning modules provided by the Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Program (DRFIP)—a partnership of the World Bank Group and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR)—seek to provide Ministers of Finance and their development partners with information and approaches needed to appropriately plan for and manage the financial impact of disasters.
The DRFIP is a leading partner of developing countries looking to develop and implement comprehensive financial protection strategies that reduce the financial risk posed by disasters and climate change.
When starting my assignment in Central Asia four years ago, my introductory briefing included a map of the region that showed the incidence of earthquakes in the previous 30 days. I was shocked at the number of red dots all over the map. Yet earthquakes are not the only hazard: Central Asia is also prone to landslides, floods, mudflows, droughts, avalanches, and extreme temperatures. These natural disasters lead, on average, to an astounding $10 billion in estimated economic losses every year.
Catastrophe and green bonds in the private sector have become the most prominent innovations in the field of sustainable finance in the last 15 years.
现在可以通过一种新的保险形式来解决灾后立即响应资金的缺口。
由于人口增长、经济和基础设施资产在地理上集中于脆弱地区以及气候变化的影响,社会继续承担着自然灾害带来的越来越多的成本,并加速了潜在损失的暴露。
灾害造成的财务损失是一种系统性的金融风险。它们在金融系统中层层叠叠,资本从脆弱的部门和社区外逃,主权信用风险,主权违约,货币贬值和保险费的突然和急剧减记。这可能会造成新的风险和/或加强现有的不平等现象。最终,它们对筹集投资以提高复原力的能力构成挑战。
复原力需要一个分层的金融战略,使所有的资金来源都能发挥作用,预防风险的项目需要利用所有潜在的受益者来提供资金。创新的融资模式,如混合融资和影响力投资,已经成为应对风险和鼓励私人投资的工具,可以改变人们的生活,促进仙台框架的实施。本次会议将讨论和探讨市场驱动的创新产品的实施和扩大,以及为抗灾能力融资的选择
The effects of climate change are becoming more evident. Seoul, South Korea recently experienced severe flood damage following the heaviest rainfall in over 100 years. New South Wales in Australia has been hit by major floods several times this year. Swiss Re Institute noted 306 catastrophe events last year. These events had economic losses amounting to USD 280 billion, of which USD270 billion are attributed to economic losses arising from natural catastrophes. There were more than 50 severe flood events around the world in 2021, resulting in combined economic losses of more than USD 80 billion. Of this 80 billion, only USD 20 billion were insured losses. This signifies the large global protection gap that still exists.
The combination of the impact from climate change impacts and the increasing global protection gap signals the need for the insurance industry to increase the resilience of businesses.
Innovative solutions such as parametric insurance is a means for companies to enhance their resilience.
Tune in to this webinar recording as APAC CEO Jonathan Rake hosts experts Martin Hotz, Head Parametric Nat Cat, and Andre Martin, Head Innovative Risk Solutions APAC, in an engaging discussion around the fundamentals of parametric insurance, how parametric works in practice, and execution of parametric insurance in the Asia Pacific region, and the way forward.
When discussing parametric insurance and its value to public entities, the conversation often involves innovative features of parametric products – speed, flexibility, and transparency. However, what makes parametric insurance valuable is as much the insurance aspect as its parametric qualities. With increased granularity and ubiquity of data coupled with advancements in technology, parametric insurance can reshape how the public sector accesses insurance.
To understand why parametric insurance is valuable to public entities, it is important to reflect on the motivation of public entities to purchase insurance and the gaps in the traditional programs they intend to fill. This big picture view highlights the efficacy of insurance to address the widening protection gap (See: Closing the protection gap | Swiss Re), especially when it comes to losses driven by climate change. Parametric products leverage data and technology to reshape the value of insurance and provide a mechanism to meet the growing needs of governments and communities.
This was the third session of the day from our Artemis London 2022 conference, held on September 6th, 2022.
The event was Artemis’ first insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference held in the City of London and saw more than 240 attendees enjoy a wide-range of sessions and networking opportunities.
Themed largely around the catastrophe bond, attendees heard from expert speakers that have been in the sector for years, as well as newcomers with ideas of how to innovate the cat bond and ILS market going forwards.
Attendees came from as far afield as New Zealand, Hawaii, Asia, North and South America, Bermuda, as well as a large European contingent, plus as you’d expect numerous London marketplace leaders in ILS and reinsurance.
This third video from the event features a panel discussion on environmental, social and governance (ESG) trends in the catastrophe bond market, under the title of “ESG in the cat bond market. Where next?”, moderated by Dirk Schmelzer, Partner, Senior Portfolio Manager, Plenum Investments AG.
Panellists participating in this discussion were: Chantal Berendsen, Hedge Fund IDD Senior Analyst, Insurance Specialist, Albourne Partners; Siti Dawson, Executive Director, LGT ILS Partners; and Andy Palmer, Head ILS Structuring EMEA & APAC / CEO SRCML, Swiss Re.
The group discussed how ESG has increased as a priority with cat bond and ILS investors, what the ILS market is doing to respond to investors ESG needs and where the catastrophe bond market goes next on its journey towards becoming increasingly ESG appropriate as an asset class.
Andy Palmer of Swiss Re commented on the current status of ESG in reinsurance and ILS, “I think we’re towards the beginning of the discussion. Different sponsors are on different journeys, generally as a company. They’re still trying to understand what sustainability means to them as a business. It’s very early days, but at least heading in the right direction.”
Siti Dawson of LGT ILS Partners explained the motivations driving initiatives to deliver on greater ESG related standardisation within the ILS industry, “For our investor-base, it would be a great help to know what in terms of ESG data they are getting for their money. Of course the lack of standardisation is a big topic, but on the other hand a big opportunity for us, us being the ILS industry, to work towards at least some form of standardisation.”
Chantal Berendsen, of Albourne Partners, added the view of an investment advisory, “Even if it starts with a yes/no just to understand what’s in the portfolio and get people used to providing more information. It’s the direction of travel that’s really positive.”
Dirk Schmelzer, of Plenum Investments, highlighted that this mission to add greater ESG appropriateness to the cat bond and ILS asset class is also investor-driven, to a degree, “Ultimately, you’re looking for standardisation, when you talk about ESG, instead of having a highly fragmented, opinion-driven environment, that you need to navigate. I think standardisation may also be helpful in communicating back to our investors.”
Watch the full video for more of their comments.
So, what is impact investing? This module provides the answer and places impact investing in the context of traditional, responsible and sustainable investing. The module also introduces the ‘spectrum of capital’ – a vital aid in explaining impact investing to others – and gives a briefing on the development of impact investing over time and the key global frameworks and standards that govern the market. It also acknowledges some of the challenges that impact investing is addressing as well as the opportunities that are ahead. This section provides the foundational knowledge that you need before you can build your impact skills and expertise.
As trade volumes, particularly container traffic, between Asia and Europe continue to grow and as geopolitical events disrupt existing trade corridors, major trading and logistics companies are exploring ways to diversify and optimise transport routes and make them more sustainable.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is conducting a study on sustainable transport connections between Central Asia and Europe, funded by the European Commission. The study, which should be completed by summer 2023, aims to identify the most sustainable transport connections between Central Asian economies and the extended Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).
It has two objectives: to identify the most sustainable transport corridors connecting the five Central Asian countries with the European Union’s TEN-T, including the Caucasus, and to propose actions for their development, including actual infrastructure investments and the necessary enabling environment.
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