New York, 22nd September, 2019 – The United Nations, Germany, the U.K. and the insurance industry today announced a series of coordinated commitments aimed at increasing climate change resilience for the most vulnerable countries, on the eve of the UN Secretary General’s Climate Summit. 

The organizations teaming up to make these commitments in an unprecedented, coalescent drive for concrete action, are the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the U.K. Department for International Development (DfID) and the Insurance Development Forum (IDF). 

The commitments will contribute risk management expertise and capital to realize the Vision 2025 of the InsuResilience Global Partnership, which rallies global players towards a substantial scale-up in the use of pre-arranged risk finance and insurance mechanisms as part of global resilience and adaptation ambitions.  It includes provision of cover against disaster and climate shocks to 500 million individuals, as well as an increase in the percentage of annual climate and disaster losses covered by risk finance and insurance.

“We stand at a pivotal moment in time with climate change causing more frequent; and more severe storms, floods and droughts,” says Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator. “Our environment, water resources and biodiversity are under assault from pollution, warming oceans, rising sea levels and ever-increasing temperatures -- insurance and risk financing are critical means to help properly tackle these issues. UNDP is committed to markedly increasing its risk financing and insurance portfolio, working across inclusive insurance, insurance investments and natural capital while mainstreaming the fundamentals of risk, and risk-financing into key development processes”.

The German Development Ministry is already providing some 450 million euros for the expansion of climate insurance and risk financing. Dr Maria Flachsbarth, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, commented, “Today, we are turning the page onto a new chapter of the InsuResilience Global Partnership through a new program with UNDP, the private sector and the Insurance Development Forum. It will benefit up to 20 particularly poor and vulnerable countries through better data and technical assistance, and through the expansion of insurance specifically for poor people.  In this context, we will enhance our bilateral engagement by 20 million euros and intend to enhance cooperation with multilateral partners and, in particular, UNDP at a similar magnitude.”

UK International Development Secretary Alok Sharma said: “Every year natural disasters force an estimated 26 million people into poverty. As the pace of a changing climate increases, the effect felt by the world’s poorest will only increase. “Our increased support will make sure developing countries can better prepare for and deal with the devastation caused by extreme weather and natural catastrophes.”

Denis Duverne, Chairman of AXA and IDF, also affirmed the role of re/insurance in helping to inform resilience and better adaptation to climate change and development. He commented, “Given the risks countries face today, our industry has a responsibility to take the lead in driving action that is needed from both the public and private sector. Our industry commits not only to the offered USD 5 billion re/insurance capacity, but to develop and share openly accessible modelling platform and ecosystem infrastructure for climate risk models and our expertise to help build up risk management capabilities in those countries that need it the most. The IDF Practical Guide to Insuring Public Assets, which we are also launching today, represents a concrete tool to help countries benefit from the capabilities our industry can contribute. 

We hope that the concerted efforts we announce today will truly contribute to build a more resilient world.”

The details of the programmes and commitments are as follows.

UNDP and BMZ announce a joint initiative to support UNDP’s work at both global and especially country level, to drive inclusive insurance in seven countries from 2020 to 2023, with a substantial contribution. 

The work combines detailed in-country work to develop and deliver inclusive insurance solutions to benefit hundreds of thousands of people in some of the most climate-vulnerable parts of the world, combined with investment in evidence, research and sponsoring innovations at the country level.

Key delivery partnerships will build upon the already existing working-groups and alliances with the members of the Insurance Development Forum, the InsuResilience Global Partnership and the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF).

The IDF has invited all its members to actively engage in this effort. The following companies have endorsed this commitment: Allianz, Aon, Axa, Munich Re, Renaissance Re, Scor, Swiss Re, Willis Towers Watson.

With the UN Secretary General’s Summit scheduled for September 23, these coordinated commitments by governments and businesses to help empower the UN to address one of the world’s greatest threats – the inability to recover from the catastrophic impacts of climate change in the world’s most vulnerable populations. 

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