Climate-related risks

Physical risks

Physical risks posed by climate change could potentially affect four areas of our business. They can:

• Reduce/disrupt our operations
• Influence modelling and pricing of weather-related natural perils
• Impact the economic viability of re/insurance for risks exposed to extreme weather events
• Impact real assets exposed to weather-related natural perils

Our own operations

According to our in-house catastrophe loss models, severe weather risks are potentially of importance for some of our operations, mainly in Florida and on the northeastern coast of the US. However, even assuming an extreme climate change scenario, we do not expect any of these office locations to be exposed to risk levels that would question their economic viability. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy in New York showed that some of Swiss Re’s offices are already exposed to severe weather risks. In response, we sharpened the Group’s business continuity management to minimise property losses and business interruption. Thanks to these investments, we are able to swiftly transfer work to unaffected locations if required and to keep potential financial impacts to a minimum.

Modelling and pricing of weather-related perils

Based on our proprietary loss modelling, we calculate the annual expected losses (AEL) and loss-frequency distributions of major weather-related natural catastrophes. The four perils with the largest AEL at present are disclosed in Climate metrics and targets (North Atlantic hurricane, US tornado, European windstorm, and Japanese tropical cyclone). Our models show that with the current climate, the dominant factor is natural variability, affecting both the frequency and severity of extreme weather events in all regions. We expect this to remain the case both in the short and medium term (ie 2025 and 2030), in line with the latest scientific findings (see the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, chapter 11, and the IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C).

In addition, we expect weather risk to remain assessable by scientific methods, meaning we can continue to update our loss models in the future to assure adequate costing of extreme weather events. Since most of the re/insurance contracts with our clients have a duration of one year, we can adequately price natural catastrophe risks by updating our models to reflect the current climate risks.

Regarding the long-term time horizon (2040), we expect a substantial need to adjust some of our weather risk models, based on current scientific knowledge. We are confident, however, that future research will continue to give us sufficient guidance on the magnitude and direction of these adjustments. The potential impact of climate change, including natural variability, is already being assessed and integrated into our risk view today, eg through regular updates of tropical cyclone frequencies. Furthermore, we conduct internal research and collaborate with academia to study the impact on extreme weather events in the near and medium term.

Impact on the economic viability of re/insurance protection

An increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events can restrict the affordability of re/insurance in certain regions, especially in coastal areas, by requiring a rise in premiums. While climate projections are associated with a large range of uncertainty, especially when it comes to storms making landfall, increases in the frequency and severity of tropical storms are likely. Natural variability is expected to remain the dominant factor in the short and medium term (2025 and 2030). In the longer term (2040), a rise in sea levels will lead to non-linear increases in storm surge risk for coastal areas. Additionally, warmer temperatures will lead to more extreme rainfall events that may increase flood risk.

If rises in re/insurance premiums, necessitated by increasing extreme weather risks, remain modest, ie re/insurance protection remains economically viable for our clients, the overall premium volume will potentailly grow. Larger increases, however, will eventually reverse this effect by pushing re/insurance prices for certain exposed risks beyond the limits of economic viability. This is particularly relevant for areas with inadequate construction planning and development. In addition, timing is of crucial importance: if measures to exclude a particular risk are taken too early, we may offer our clients less insurance protection; if measures are taken too late, we may end up with increased claims. Finally, the overall size of the re/insurance market will depend on future economic growth rates.

In line with independent external studies, we have shown through a series of scenario assessments (Economics of Climate Adaptation studies, ECA), that in many regions, climate adaptation measures need to be taken to limit expected increases in natural catastrophe damages and thus to ensure the economic viability of re/insurance in the future. This is a key reason why Swiss Re actively engages with the United Nations, the public sector, clients, industry peers and employees to advocate cost-effective adaptation to climate change.

Impact on real assets exposed to weather-related perils

Real assets such as real estate are exposed to natural perils, eg hurricanes, tropical cyclones and floods. In addition to considering physical risks when acquiring new properties, we analyse these exposures across the portfolio based on our proprietary modelling capabilities used for our re/insurance underwriting. This analysis has been extended and refined recently, with results suggesting a very low exposure to natural perils in general and to climate-related perils in particular.

Transition risks in our re/insurance business

Transition risks may arise as a result of the extensive policy, legal, technology and market changes that are required to make the transition to a low-carbon economy. We have assessed the two transition risks that may potentially affect our business:

• Climate-related litigation risks
• Risks from technological and market shifts

Climate-related litigation risks

We identified potential climate-related litigation risks as an emerging risk over a decade ago and assessed its potential relevance through our own research. After years of decline, climate change litigation activities against large greenhouse gas emitters have increased recently. However, associated insurance coverage disputes have remained stable.

As a result, we have not faced any new claims from climate-related litigation in recent years and the results of the litigation, which have remained in favour of the defendants, suggest that this trend will likely continue, but warrants continued monitoring.

Technological and market shifts

The re/insurance sector is likely to experience the technological transition in two ways. Firstly, new technologies by definition do not have loss histories and thus may be challenging to cost accurately. Research and development is thus required to develop possible loss scenarios and the related expenses. Once these are developed and tested, new technologies are likely to present the sector with an opportunity to offer new solutions (see Climate-related opportunities).

Secondly, new low-carbon technologies are likely to gradually displace traditional, fossil fuel-based ones. This will alter the market and, as a result, gradually change the nature of re/insured assets.

This transition does not, however, automatically translate into a financial risk for us. For example, motor insurance is the most important business line of the re/insurance sector globally. According to Swiss Re’s sigma database, it currently represents approximately 33% of global non-life gross written premiums and is expected to grow further, albeit at a lower rate.

Driven by intensifying efforts to curb climate change, the global motor vehicle inventory will shift from combustion to electric engines. In a Swiss Re study on the casualty risk trends in the automotive industry, we noted that the move from conventional (pure combustion engine) cars to more electrically based mobility is a transition process that is likely to increase in the coming years. This development will entail the implimentation of a variety of new technologies, from new lightweight materials to advanced battery systems.

Consequently, while the automotive industry as a whole is undergoing significant change, the impact on insurance portfolios is expected to be gradual. As motor insurance contracts are renewed annually, re/insurers will be able to develop the appropriate underwriting experience, loss adjustment and claims handling.

To address the residual risk, we have recently started to develop a carbon risk steering mechanism. Its key component will be a carbon risk model designed to measure our carbon intensity and the associated risks embedded in our re/insurance business.

As a first step in 2018, we introduced a thermal coal policy for our underwriting, pledging not to provide re/insurance to businesses with more than 30% exposure to thermal coal utilities or mining. The policy is fully integrated into our Sustainable Business Risk Framework. It applies to both old and new thermal coal projects and across all lines of business. While it is easier to implement this policy in some parts of our business, for others the transition will take some time and require a continued and constructive dialogue with our clients. In 2019, we continued the implementation of the thermal coal policy for treaty business and engaged with over 300 insureds across all regions on this topic.

We also intensified our efforts to decarbonise our business by committing to net-zero emissions by 2050 on the liability and the asset sides of our balance sheet. A further step towards this commitment was the development of a policy to shift away from highly carbon-intense oil and gas production.

From July 2021, we will no longer provide individual/insurance covers for those oil and gas companies that are responsible for the world’s 5% most carbon-intense oil and gas production.

From July 2023, we will no longer provide individual insurance covers for those oil and gas companies that are responsible for the world’s 10% most carbon-intense oil and gas production.

Transition risks in our investments

Climate-related risks can impact the value of our investments and are therefore considered a substantial part of our Responsible Investing Strategy. A key risk for asset owners is that a changing environment may result in a specific company or a particularly exposed industry becoming a stranded asset in investment portfolios, ie the devaluation of investments driven by unfavourable changes, such as increased taxes or new regulations. With regard to climate change, the market environment could shift to address mitigation and adaptation requirements to limit a global temperature rise to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5°C.

Governments and regulators have started to develop proposals to steer and transition climate change-related market activities to more sustainable alternatives. The European Commission’s Action Plan for Financing Sustainable Growth and the UK’s Green Finance Strategy, which legislates for net-zero emissions by 2050, are just two examples.

Based on these market developments, we continue to focus on policy and legal risks, as well as technology risks, as we mainly expect changes within these two dimensions to potentially impact asset values. In this way, we aim to capture those industries and groups of companies that are most exposed to these risks and may therefore require adjustments in the near to medium term.

Industries and companies that are particularly exposed to changes in policy and legal, as well as technological developments, show elevated risk exposures either in the production process, in raw materials, in transportation/logistics or distribution and store operations due to high carbon footprints in these areas. Furthermore, industries may face increased costs due to higher or more volatile energy prices, compliance costs in the production and distribution process, and costs from product demand substitution. All these changes may cause increased price volatility of the underlying assets.

Based on our commitment to support the transition to a low-carbon economy, we have been measuring the weighted average carbon intensity¹ of our corporate credit and listed equities portfolios since the end of 2015. Measurement results are presented in the “Metrics and targets” section. As part of our mitigation strategy, we have stopped investing in companies that use at least 30% thermal coal for power generation or produce 30% or more of their revenues from thermal coal mining.

As of 2018, we also excluded oil sands companies that generate 20% or more of their revenues from such operations from the investment universe. In 2019, we extended our mitigation approach to an absolute coal threshold: we do not invest in mining companies producing at least 20 million tonnes of coal per year and power utility generators with more than 10 gigawatts of installed coal fire capacity.