Insurance and Reinsurance: Sharing Risks, Building Resilience

For centuries, the insurance sector has fueled economic growth by transferring and sharing risks across institutions and investors. To do this, insurance has innovated in how we conceive, identify, and quantify hazards, even as insurance costs have acted as an incentive for reducing exposure to hazards. Indeed, modern economies evolved with and require insurance as a backstop and foundation.

Climate change is altering these arrangements in profound ways. Fire hazards, flash droughts, sea-level rise, and expanding floodplains are just a few signs of a tilting landscape. As new risks appear, so do new demands and novel roles for insurance and reinsurance globally. At the same time, little consensus has emerged in how we identify, interpret, and reduce the threat of uncertain, emerging hazards. And the shifting nature of risk assessment also raises concerns about how we regulate insurance and how to best balance public sector and commercial instruments. Water-related hazards are at the center of this discussion given the sensitivity of the water cycle to climate change. In some cases, commercial options are retreating even as climate impacts accelerate. Water-based resilience may also have the potential to drive systemic solutions across sectors. Should insurance play a role in advancing new roles and responses?

In this webinar from the Water Resilience for Economic Resilience (WR4ER) initiative, we actively explore the state of play around both risk and resilience in the insurance sector, for consumers and regulators of insurance, and for the broader economy.

This webinar took place on 9 April 2024. More info on the webinar series can be found on the Resilient Waters blog.