Insurance and Climate Risk 2017

Keynote: Climate change action and sustainable development in the context of the insurance industry, financial regulation and global policy frameworks

Butch Bacani, Programme Leader, UN Environment's Principles for Sustainable Insurance Initiative

Keynote: The insurers' role in building resilience and sustainability

Stephen Catlin, XL Group Ltd

Applying ESG criteria to the insurance underwriting business

• Identifying key sustainability risks in the underwriting business
• Key sectors at risk
• Key lines of business at risk
• Screening sensitive transactions for impacts and assessing extent of impact
• Embedding due diligence process in underwriting practice
• Abstain vs. engage
• Opportunities to contribute to positive change and enhance resilience

Michael Bruch, Head of Emerging Trends/ESG Business Services, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE

Modelling physical environmental risks: the challenge of combining climate risk modelling with Nat Cat modelling

• What evidence is there for a shift in extreme weather?
• What are the challenges in understanding the impact of climate change e.g. natural variability, non-stationarity, scale, adaption?
• How do these affect quantification?
• What challenges are specific to the (re)insurance industry?
• What approaches are (re)insurance companies taking?

Kirsten Mitchell-Wallace, EMEA Regional Head of Catastrophe Management, SCOR

Analysis and feedback from a scoring exercise on the climate change and coal policies of 25 leading insurers

• Burning coal is by far the biggest source of CO2 emissions and climate change. In recent years, insurers have increasingly been scrutinized regarding their role in the coal sector.
• How do leading insurers compare regarding their underwriting and investment policies for the coal sector?

Peter Bosshard, Finance Programme Director, The Sunrise Project

The disruptive cascade effect of physical environmental risks: impact on insurance risk and global industry

• Which physical environmental risks pose the greatest risk in terms of likelihood of occurrence and impact?
• Understanding the interconnectedness of environmental risks - just how far reaching could the ripple effect be?
• Resulting operational risk - fallout and impact on the insurance and wider financial sector if we fail to correctly model environmental exposures.
• Insurance risk – potential impact as a direct result of climate risk – eg damage to property, business interruption risk, supply chain interruption and the domino effect.
• Rising premiums?
• Risk pooling?
• Uninsurable risks in the long term?
• Widening climate risk protection gap– who will pick up the pieces if insurance firms can't insure? Government as insurer of last resort?
• A CASE STUDY APPROACH TAKING 1 KEY PHYSICAL RISK – A SCENARIO ANALYSIS TO DEMONSTRATE THE POTENTIAL RIPPLE EFFECT AND ITS REPERCUSSIONS ON THE INSURANCE SECTOR, BUSINESS, FINANCIAL SECTOR, GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY.

John Scott, Chief Risk Officer, Zurich

Panel discussion: Steps towards incorporating ESG considerations into the investment decision

A panel of investment experts discuss approach, progress and challenges for the balance sheet.

• How far along in the journey are we to integrating environmental considerations into investment decisions?
• Consideration of the challenging low rate and global economic environment and restrictive regulatory framework – does this strengthen the case for incorporating ESG considerations or reduce it?
• Overview of policy adopted and why?
• Asset exclusion
• Engagement strategies
• Low carbon indexes
• Impact investing
• Investing in renewables
• Allocating capital via green bonds
• What impact does the integration of physical and transition environmental risks into the investment criteria have on the risk/return of a portfolio?
• Asset exclusion - what alternative assets can you invest in to replace it with?
• What opportunities do you see presented by climate risk?
• How do you take advantage of these opportunities without creating transition risk?
• Managing Transition Risk in the investment portfolio – walking the tightrope to bring about transition without creating transition risk

Panellists:
Jelle van der Giessen, Chief Investment Officer, NN Group
Johanna Kob, Head of Responsible Investment, Zurich
Michael Lewis, Head of ESG Thematic Research, Deutsche Asset Management
Michèle Lacroix, Head of Group Investment Office, SCOR
Moderator: Asa Gibson, Editor, Insurance Asset Risk

Panel discussion: Overview of opportunities for the insurer as a result of climate change

• Opportunity for insurers to use their unique understanding of both asset and liability sides of the balance sheet to help educate and inform other industries.
• Taking a competitive advantage in the move towards a greener economy - what are the opportunities for insurers and how do we position ourselves to access them?
• Product innovation as data improves
• Opportunities to break into emerging economies
• Creation of green bonds that minimize transition risk
• Investing in renewables
• Subsidy-free offshore wind farms
• Investing in new technologies to speed up the transition to low carbon environment.
• Importance of viewing opportunities within the context of risk – balancing the 2 and avoiding creating transition risk as a result of opportunities taken.

Panellists:
Dr. Tom Herbstein, Programme Manager, ClimateWise
Cynthia McHale, Director of Insurance, Ceres
Gary McInally, Chief Actuary, Flood Re
Shaun Tarbuck, CEO, ICMIF 

Moderator:
Graham Cooper, Contributing Editor, Co-Founder, Environmental Finance

Panel discussion: Investing in green bonds - making green bonds more accessible

• Rates of green bond issuance
• Supply vs. demand
• Hindrance to growth of the green bond market:
• Lack of global standards for green bond issuance
• Growing risk of green washing
• Understanding similarities and differences between green bond definitions
• Lack of transparency over performance measures –how can investors better assess the impacts the bonds have on the environment?
• Better reporting metrics
• Quantitative key performance indicators
• Insurers as issuers of green bonds; QBE Green Bond Framework – can other insurers follow suit?
• Opportunities for issuance in emerging markets

Panellists:
Johanna Kob, Head of Responsible Investment, Zurich
Miroslav Petkov, Director, Financial Services/Insurance, S&P Global
Peter Munro, Director, Market Practice & Regulatory Policy, ICMA
Simon Bond, Director of Responsible Investment Portfolio Management, Columbia Threadneedle Investments

Moderator: 
Natalie Mordi-Hillaert, Green DCM, EMEA, Short Term Fixed Income Origination, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Panel discussion: Investing in renewables

• Redirecting capital into investments that can support the transition to a climate resilient economy
• How can regulation better support growth of renewable investment opportunities?
• What is the relationship between investment in resilience enhancing investments and underwriting profits?
• Managing the liquidity around investing in renewables
• Choosing the right time horizon
• Short term vs. long term environmental considerations
• Importance of local regulation

Panellists:
Andrew Pidden, Managing Director, Head of Sustainable Investments, Deutsche Asset Management
Matthias Seewald, Chief Investment Officer, Allianz
Greg Schiffer, Head of Global Engineering, SWISS RE
Moderator: Cynthia McHale, Director of Insurance, CERES

Panel discussion: A practical look at managing the transition to a low carbon economy

• How best to achieve an effective and efficient energy transition?
• What is the outlook for stranded assets?
• Impact of potential accelerators on transition risk
• How to respond to demand and supply without fossil fuel

Panellists:
Kajetan Czyż, Programme Director, Sustainable Finance, Cambridge institute for sustainability leadership
Sylvain Vanston, Head of ESG Integration, AXA
Manish Shakdwipee, Vice President, Head of Climate Change Research, New Models and Methodologies, MSCI ESG Research
Toby Belsom, Head of Investor Research and Analytics, ShareAction
James Orr, Chief Actuary, General Insurance, Prudential Regulation Authority

Moderator: 
Butch Bacani, Programme Leader, UN Environment's Principles for Sustainable Insurance Initiative

Closing remarks: Butch Bacani, Programme Leader, UN Environment's Principles for Sustainable Insurance Initiative