Insuring Resilience, Financing Risk? The New Role of Insurance
As climate impacts intensify, the insurance industry is facing growing challenges to its traditional role of transferring and managing risk. Rising climate-related losses, widening protection gaps, and increasing concerns over insurability are raising questions about how insurers can respond to a rapidly changing risk landscape. At the same time, the urgent need for climate adaptation and energy transformation is creating new expectations for insurers to play a broader role in addressing climate risks.
While many insurers have adopted climate commitments, questions remain about what effective climate leadership looks like in practice. Beyond traditional risk transfer, insurers are increasingly expected to support climate resilience and adaptation, while their underwriting, investment, and risk management decisions are facing growing scrutiny for their potential influence on future climate outcomes. These developments raise broader questions about the opportunities, challenges, and responsibilities of insurers in responding to the climate crisis.
Against this backdrop, this session will examine the evolving role of insurance in the climate crisis and explore what role insurers should play in addressing growing climate risks. Bringing together perspectives from the insurance industry, local government, investors, and civil society, the discussion will focus on the challenges posed by growing climate risks and protection gaps, the potential role of insurers in supporting resilience and the energy transition, and the responsibilities of the insurance sector in a rapidly changing risk landscape.
Speakers:
Jihyun Ahn, Researcher, Solutions for Our Climate (SFOC) (Moderator)
Ayako Kageyama, Head of Innovative Sustainable Finance, Nippon Life Insurance
Cho Seon Hee, Director-General, Carbon Neutral Policy Division, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province
Priscilla Negreiros, Associate Director, Climate Policy Initiative (CPI)
Sinja Buri, Climate Risk Finance Solutions Team Lead, Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII), hosted at UNU-EHS
Elisa Vacherand, Deputy Global Finance Practice Lead, WWF International
Additional speakers will be announced soon.