HRH The Prince of Wales launches new partnership with the global insurance industry to drive action to tackle climate change
Today HRH The Prince of Wales launched his Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Insurance Task Force during a visit to Lloyd’s, the world’s leading insurance and reinsurance marketplace. The SMI Insurance Task Force, convened by HRH and chaired by Lloyd’s, is comprised of executives from many of the world’s largest insurance and reinsurance companies*, providing an influential platform for the sector to collectively advance the world’s progress towards a resilient, net-zero economy.
With a unique view of the climate crisis, through its many decades of providing support to communities, businesses and economies in the face of increasingly severe and frequent weather events, the global insurance industry has a critical role to play. Alongside mitigating and managing the impact of these disasters, the industry continues to provide financial support across multiple industries to build greater climate resilience, supporting the increased scale and speed of the transition.
The SMI Insurance Task Force has today published its Statement of Intent, committing to provide climate positive financing and risk management solutions to support and encourage individuals and businesses around the world to accelerate their transition to a sustainable future.
During the visit by HRH, the Lloyd’s Lutine Bell rung out twice to mark the new and significant global insurance industry commitment to drive climate positive action at pace, through a number of key initiatives^. For commercial and individual customers, these actions include adapting and expanding coverage for offshore wind projects in response to rapid growth and new technologies, alongside the implementation of “build back better” claims clauses in home insurance policies to encourage customers to rebuild sustainably.
The SMI Insurance Task Force will also work with governments to establish a public-private disaster resilience, response and recovery framework, which will help protect developing nations from the evolving economic and societal impacts of climate change.
To support the rapid growth of green projects and innovation, the SMI Insurance Task Force will develop a framework to help unlock the more than $30 trillion in assets under management, increasingly directing capital towards investments that drive climate-positive outcomes in both developed and developing nations.
His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales said: “The insurance industry is exceptionally well placed to understand the impact of climate change and the damage it can cause to us all if we don’t take action now. This is why I am so pleased that a large number of the world’s leading insurance companies have joined together to identify how the insurance industry can help put Nature, People and the Planet at the heart of our entire economy.”
Lloyd’s Chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown added: “As the world begins to recover from a pandemic that has caused significant and far-reaching financial and societal challenges, it does so with an opportunity to build back with sustainability as a foundation and guiding principle. Although climate change poses unprecedented systemic risk, it is one which – through partnership and accelerated action – we have the means to address. As a task force, we are making a resolute commitment to be a catalyst for action to help create a more sustainable future through the risks we manage and the capital we invest.”
* SMI Insurance Task Force Membership
• AIG: Peter Zaffino, President and CEO
• Allianz: Oliver Bäte, CEO
• Amwins: Scott Purviance, CEO
• Aon: Greg Case, CEO
• Ascot: Andrew Brooks, CEO
• AXA: Sean McGovern, CEO AXA XL
• Beazley: Adrian Cox, CEO
• Conduit Re: Neil Eckert, Executive Chairman
• Direct Line Group: Penny James, CEO
• Hiscox: Bronek Masojada, CEO
• Howden Group: David Howden, CEO
• Legal & General: Nigel Wilson, CEO
• Lloyd’s: John Neal, CEO
• Marsh McLennan: Dan Glaser, President and CEO
• Munich Re: Joachim Wenning, CEO
• Phoenix: Andy Briggs, Group CEO
• Tokio Marine Kiln: Brad Irick, CEO
^
1. Driving insurance product and services innovation to empower commercial customers to develop, invest in and scale their sustainability initiatives, supporting green innovation across multiple sectors and geographies. As part of this initiative, the Task Force will launch at least two new insurance products to protect priority industries, such as nuclear energy, hydrogen and offshore wind, against an evolving risk landscape, in order to enable their accelerated growth.
2. Implementing sustainable processes across the insurance supply chain to encourage and incentivise individuals to take positive actions to live more sustainably. This will include launching an industry-wide framework to drive sustainable outcomes for customers, for example through introducing “build back better” claims clauses in home insurance policies to encourage customers to rebuild damaged properties with more sustainable materials in support of a net-zero transition.
3. Establishing a public-private disaster resilience, response, and recovery framework to help protect developing nations from the evolving economic and societal impacts of climate change, including the effects of increasingly frequent and severe weather events. The framework will leverage the insurance industry’s unique ability to combine an insurance product with risk management and loss recovery services, in order to increase preparedness for and limit the impacts of these events. Once developed, this solution will be rolled out across vulnerable countries to support better disaster response and recovery, with a pilot being initiated in 2021.
4. Developing a framework for accelerating and scaling sustainable investment to help unlock the global (re)insurance industry’s more than $30tn in assets under management, increasingly directing capital towards investments that drive climate-positive outcomes in both developed and developing nations. As part of this initiative, an investment proposal will be developed through collaboration between public and private sectors, with a particular focus on renewable energy and climate transition assets to enable the transition towards a low-carbon economy.
Contact
For further information contact:
UK:
+44 (0) 20 7327 5111 | pressoffice@lloyds.com
+44 (0) 20 7327 5391 | Annie.Roberts@lloyds.com
Americas:
+44 (0) 20 7327 5356 | Tom.Hazzard@lloyds.com
EMEA:
+44 (0) 20 7327 5721 | Elliot.Maule@lloyds.com
APAC:
+65 6870 9227 | Suganthy.Selva@lloyds.com
Sustainable Markets Initiative
+44 7543 759 844 | l.round@sustainable-markets.org
About Lloyd’s:
Lloyd’s is the world’s leading insurance and reinsurance marketplace. Through the collective intelligence and risk-sharing expertise of the market’s underwriters and brokers, Lloyd’s helps to create a braver world.
The Lloyd’s market provides the leadership and insight to anticipate and understand risk, and the knowledge to develop relevant, new and innovative forms of insurance for customers globally. It offers the efficiencies of shared resources and services in a marketplace that covers and shares risks from more than 200 territories, in any industry, at any scale.
And it promises a trusted, enduring partnership built on the confidence that Lloyd’s protects what matters most: helping people, businesses and communities to recover in times of need.
Lloyd’s began with a few courageous entrepreneurs in a coffeeshop. Three centuries later, the Lloyd’s market continues that proud tradition, sharing risk in order to protect, build resilience and inspire courage everywhere.
About Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI)
His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, launched the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) alongside a 10-point action plan at Davos in January 2020. The SMI is a network of global CEOs working together to build prosperous and sustainable economies that generate long-term value through the balanced integration of natural, social, human and financial capital.
The SMI facilitates the development of responsible transition pathways at industry and business levels to decarbonize and achieve net-zero GHG emissions in addition to creating a Nature-positive future with a focus on biodiversity regeneration. The SMI Secretariat is supported by SMI’s corporate partners through a world-class secondment programme. Read more: www.sustainable-markets.org
About HRH The Prince of Wales:
For over 50 years, HRH The Prince of Wales has built a unique credibility by using his voice to advocate for action to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises including serving as Patron to dozens of environmental initiatives and organizations. The Prince’s first speech on the issue was in February 1970 when he spoke of the problems of throwing away materials such as plastics, and how we could make conservation cost effective.
HRH was a lone but determined voice on this issue for many decades, but climate is now at the top of the international agenda. As the next Head of the Commonwealth, HRH has also been convening the 54 leaders of the Commonwealth to ensure the views of developed and developing countries alike are heard, and to focus on the green recovery, investment for sustainable transition and the opportunity for collective action across the Commonwealth, particularly across climate vulnerable and small island states.
The Terra Carta
Launched by His Royal Highness at the One Planet Summit in January 2021, the Terra Carta provides a practical roadmap for acceleration towards an ambitious and sustainable future; one that will harness the power of Nature combined with the transformative power, innovation and resources of the private sector. The Terra Carta serves as the mandate for the Sustainable Markets Initiative. Currently there are over 300 CEO-level supporter supporters, including the first C40 city of Athens, Greece.
HRH is appealing to public, private and philanthropic leaders around the world to join this endeavor as part of the ‘coalition of the willing’. Read more: www.sustainable-markets.org/terra-carta