Climate risk needs insurance

The Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII), hosted at the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) has called for new insurance and risk models to tackle climate change.

Dr Koko Warner, executive board member of the Munich Re backed MCII, said in the report Solutions for Vulnerable Countries and People - Designing and Implementing Disaster Risk Reduction & Insurance for Adaptation, the UN must take action now.

Words to action

“Thinking is now broadening from the negotiating room to on-the-ground solutions for vulnerable countries and people,” he writes in the introduction, after detailing UN discussions so far.

“This second MCII Policy Brief moves a step forward and addresses key practical questions posed by climate negotiators about how to move from words to action.

“The examples in this Policy Brief show us that insurance – with coordinated public private action and some international support – has potential to provide security to vulnerable people and vulnerable countries.

“The current period is one for action, and for transforming the political commitments from the Copenhagen Accord into tangible progress in managing risk associated with climate change.

“To do this, many of the promising risk reduction and insurance activities need support from the international community in scaling up.