Willis Towers Watson buys climate change advisory business

Global advisory and broking business Willis Towers Watson (WTW) has bought climate change adaptation advisory and analytics business Acclimatise in order to broaden its service offering around physical climate risk and resilience.

Acclimatise operates a platform that assimilates and applies climate model and earth observation data to support risk analytics and online applications – this can help to support national planning and climate finance.

Since the firm was founded in 2004, it has completed more than 450 climate adaption consulting projects.

Acclimatise is based in the UK, however it also has teams in France, the US and India.

WTW plans to align Acclimatise with its Climate and Resilience Hub (CRH), which aims to help the firm’s clients address the challenges of climate and related environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues across physical, transition and legal liability risks.

WTW hopes that the new acquisition will help it to meet growing demand it is seeing from corporates, governments and financial institutions around these areas, as well as boost the company’s leadership in physical climate risk arena.

Speaking on the acquisition, John Haley, chief executive at WTW, said he is “excited about what this means for Willis Towers Watson”.

Rowan Douglas, head of WTW’s CRH, added: “By combining Acclimatise’s market leading climate modelling and adaptation capabilities with Willis Towers Watsons’s deep experience in natural catastrophe modelling, risk management, (re)insurance and investment markets we have a unique range of expertise to help clients manage climate exposures, seize adaptation opportunities and build more resilient societies and economies.

“We have long admired Acclimatise and what John Firth and Dr. Richenda Connell have built as visionary leaders since 2004. Our earlier collaboration via the Willis Research Network illustrated a shared market ambition, culture and complementary experience and relationships.

“This feels like a very natural step for both teams. We are all excited about meeting the resilience challenges for corporates, governments and financial institutions in the years ahead.”

Acclimatise chief executive and co-founder John Firth described the deal as “the right move”.

He continued: “Climate change risk is fast becoming a central part of government, corporate and financial decision making and planning. Meeting growing client demand will require increasingly sophisticated approaches to climate risk assessment and management. This is why I’m hugely excited by the potential that Willis Towers Watson’s acquisition of Acclimatise brings.

“I am very proud of Acclimatise’s achievements and our staff over its 16-year history – from kitchen table to a market leader – and am confident that combining with the Climate and Resilience Hub is the right move to ensure we can amplify the impact of our work.”