Geneva Association's new global re/insurer task force to tackle climate risk

Insurance industry think tank The Geneva Association has formed a new task force of global re/insurers to analyse the regulatory landscape and conduct a technical ‘deep dive’ to develop scenario analysis and qualitative and quantitative tools for tackling climate risk.

Experts from 17 of the world’s largest property/casualty and life insurers will come together to develop and improve climate risk assessment methodologies and tools for the insurance industry.

The task force will engage with regulators, supervisors, rating agencies and the scientific community to identify the most appropriate approaches.

Global re/insurance companies represented on the task force include Achmea, Aegon, AIG, Allianz, Aviva, AXA, Chubb, Daichi Life, Hannover Re, Intact Financial, Manulife, MetLife, Munich Re, Prudential Financial, SCOR, Swiss Re, Tokio Marine.

The first report of the task force presents key climate risk assessment considerations including physical and transition risks to both sides of the balance sheet, liabilities and assets, as well as qualitative and quantitative approaches over short- and long-term time horizons, while also accounting for uncertainties associated with transitioning.

The association stated that knowledge sharing across companies and with other stakeholders is critical to raising risk awareness and leveraging all available expertise.

Jad Ariss, Geneva Association's managing director, said: “In 2020 alone, the world witnessed massive wildfires in California and Australia, historic floods in China and a record hurricane season in the Atlantic. The societal impacts of climate change have become ubiquitous, and individuals and institutions must fully commit now to confronting the climate crisis. Insurers are obvious, strong leaders on global climate action, given their core functions – managing risk and investing – and our industry-led initiative demonstrates that they are proactively rising to the occasion.”

Maryam Golnaraghi, director climate change and emerging environmental topics and project leader, said: “This initiative is taking the insurance industry’s climate action and collaboration to the next level. Building on lessons learned from previous pilots and initiatives, our task force is focused on advancing climate risk assessment and scenario analysis anchored in companies’ decision-making, in line with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Our first report lays the foundation for us to design and test methodologies and tools – in collaboration with regulators and the scientific community – to converge on robust solutions for P&C and life insurers.”

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