Climate Risk is InsTech’s monthly newsletter dedicated to climate-related insurance news – you can sign up for free here.
Building back better for improved flood resilience
According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI), since 2020 households in Great Britain are more likely to be flooded than burgled. With continued building in high-risk flood zones and climate change exacerbating this risk, improving the resiliency of homes is more important than ever.
In April 2020, Flood Re launched the ‘Build Back Better’ scheme in collaboration with the UK government. LV=, Ageas, Aviva, NFU Mutual and Lloyds Banking Group are also taking part.
Participating home insurers will begin offering customers up to £10,000 to spend on property flood resilience measures after a flood occurs. This means that homes will be better protected against future flooding, also making it quicker and safer for families to clean up and move back in if water does enter the home. In this article from 2021, InsTech explores some of the measures that can improve properties’ flood resilience.
In conversation with Previsico
In our interview, Dr Avi Baruch discusses how Previsico works with both corporates and insurers and the importance of “build back better”. Previsico also recently announced its partnership with flood resilience solutions provider Watertight, which will support the installation of Previsico’s sensors that notify clients about potential flood risk.
The parametric company solving the protection gap at scale – Podcast 183
Jonathan Gonzalez, Co-founder and CEO of Raincoat, joined Matthew on the InsTech podcast to talk about how Hurricane Maria inspired him to launch the company, the indices used to measure perils and how various data sources are used to measure climate risk.
Member spotlight: Jupiter Intelligence
Jupiter Intelligence, founded in 2017, provides data and analytics on physical risk caused by climate change. This interview covers how insurers can use the company’s offering, the challenge in predicting the impacts of climate change and why companies are exploring their future climate risk.
In the news…
Addresscloud partners with Ambiental for climate change data
Addresscloud will integrate Ambiental’s flood data and climate risk models into its existing perils platform. The data will be used to help Addresscloud’s clients understand and mitigate potential losses on their portfolios in Europe.
$2.4bn USD insured losses from Australian floods
Using claims data, the Insurance Council of Australia has updated its estimate for insured losses from Australia’s 2022 severe flooding to $2.4 billion USD. The floods, which occurred over February and March 2022, are the costliest Australia has had to date.
Swiss Re to develop ESG prototype in the Lloyd’s Lab
The reinsurer has joined the Lab to create a prototype that will allow insurers to collect and view private companies’ data, relevant to agreed ESG metrics. Other companies taking part in the eighth cohort of the Lab include Kita, which is aiming to provide insurance for the voluntary carbon markets, and Persefoni, which provides software to help companies meet regulatory climate disclosure requirements.
JBA: Managing climate change impacts in practice
JBA is running an event at Lloyd’s of London on Thursday 19th May. The speakers will discuss methods to represent and quantify climate change on a global scale and real-life examples in managing future flood risk. Register interest here.
Concirrus launches Quest Property in the US market
Concirrus’ Quest Property uses AI to process satellite and aerial imagery to produce post-catastrophe damage reports and analytics. It is available for both residential and commercial properties, with the aim of speeding up the claims process by giving greater control to insurers and lowering claims handling costs.
MAPFRE joins the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance
The global reinsurer has joined the NZIA (Net-Zero Insurance Alliance) with the objective of achieving greenhouse emission neutrality by the year 2050. This means zero net emissions in its insurance and reinsurance underwriting portfolios. We discuss the NZIA in more detail in the InsTech Climate Change Risk Regulation and Measurement report.
Skyline Partners to create Jamaican parametric hurricane cover
Broker Howden, global reinsurer Munich Re and Skyline Partners have partnered to develop a parametric hurricane insurance product for Jamaican farmers. The cover protects the Jamaica Co-operative Credit Union League (JCCUL) against non-repayment of micro-loans from farmers after severe hurricanes.
Aon: $14bn USD insured losses in Q1 2022
The first edition of Aon’s new quarterly catastrophe report assesses natural hazards across Western and Central Europe, Australia, Japan and the US over the first quarter of 2022. Those events led to combined economic losses of $32 billion, of which public and private insurers covered $14 billion, meaning an $18 billion protection gap.
Arturo launches risk engine to help insurers manage portfolio risk
This new product from Arturo offers the ability to assess both portfolios and individual properties. Insurers are able to improve their underwriting capabilities by combining policy addresses with property characteristics. Matthew was joined by Arturo’s CEO John-Isaac Clark to discuss the company’s full offering on Podcast 186.
Fathom: UK flood risk to rise by 25% by 2050
Fathom’s model estimates that there are 1.09 million properties across Great Britain currently at risk of flooding, rising to 1.35 million by 2050 – an increase of nearly 25%. Fathom’s Chairman and co-founder, Professor Paul Bates, discusses the findings in more detail in this interview.
EigenRisk to incorporate ICEYE’s flood data on its platform
EigenRisk will use flood insights from ICEYE to support its EigenPrism catastrophe risk management platform. The data will provide near real-time observations on global flood events to enhance EigenPrism’s planning, monitoring and response capabilities.