Dirk Kohler is the Insurance Advisor at MCII. His main focus will be on complementing the work of MCII in the Caribbean by adding his long years of profound insurance industry experience to the implementation of two climate risk insurance solutions in Saint Lucia, Grenada, Jamaica, Belize and Trinidad & Tobago. He will also join the MCII team providing technical advice to the G7 initiative on climate risk insurance (InsuResilience) run by GIZ and BMZ.

Dirk was founder and CEO of CarbonRe AG, a Swiss based expert insurance, specializing in climate change, carbon markets and clean energy technologies. With a background in applied economics (chartered insurer), environmental risk management and insurance, Dirk has been associated with GERLING Group of Insurance companies and GERLING Consulting Group since 1987. In 1998 he initiated the GERLING Sustainable Development Project GmbH (GSDP) to move GERLING into visionary fostering of Sustainable Development. He took over GSDP in a Management Buy Out in 2003. Dirk was a founding partner of United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), its climate change working group, and was accredited by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at COP 6.5 and 15. Dirk was awarded World Finance Carbon Market Awards 2011 for Best Overall Contribution to Insurance (Global). He is a German with strong roots in France and experience in the Mediterranean Regions and North Africa.

See Dirk’s profile on the UNU-EHS WEBSITE.