Focus: Climate change

Climate change has been our most important sustainability issue for many years: For a reinsurer, it constitutes a key topic because it will lead to an increase in the frequency and severity of natural catastrophes such as floods, storms, excessive rainfall and drought. In combination with growing asset concentrations in exposed areas and more widespread insurance protection, this will cause a steady rise in damage. Among our current Corporate Responsibility Topics, two have a direct link to climate change: “Managing climate and natural disaster risk“ and “Advancing sustainable energy solutions”.

Climate Change – Glacier (photo)

Since detecting the long-term threat posed by climate change almost 30 years ago, we have been an acknowledged thought leader on the topic. To tackle the issue, we pursue a comprehensive strategy with four pillars:

The four pillars of our climate change strategy

  • Advancing our knowledge and understanding of climate change risks, quantifying and integrating them into our risk management and underwriting frameworks where relevant;
  • Developing products and services to mitigate or adapt to climate risk;
  • Raising awareness about climate change risks through dialogue with clients, employees and the public, and advocating a worldwide policy framework for climate change;
  • Tackling our own carbon footprint and ensuring transparent, annual emissions reporting.