3 Dec, 13:15-14:15 | Pacific & Koronivia Pavilion

Background

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 were the four hottest years on record since 1880. Approaches to managing disasters has evolved since the impact of Hurricane Mitch hit Central America in 1998. The aftermath of the event resulted in major donors meeting with the Central American presidents to work out a recovery approach that would simultaneously build resilience to extreme weather event. Subsequent, disasters such as Mozambique floods in 2000, Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 and the 2017 Hurricanes in the Caribbean, further reinforced the need for integrated approaches through collective actions.

Recognizing that new tool are urgently needed to help vulnerable people to deal with the risks and impacts of climate change, the international policy agenda called for comprehensive approaches and innovative financial instruments. In 2015, the  Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development highlighted risk transfer such as insurance solutions as important to manage climate risks. In the same year the G7 launched the InsuResilience Initiative and committed to cover additional 400 million people through climate insurance approaches by 2020. In 2017, the G20 endorsed an action plan to create a Global Partnership for climate risk finance and insurance solutions.

There is a clear momentum within the international community to explore new ways of combining different risk management approaches, ranging from risk assessment and risk reduction to risk transfer solutions to manage the growing risks of climate change. However, insurance is not a stand-alone approach, and needs to be embedded in the broader adaptation and disaster risk management plans of vulnerable countries.

The Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII) in partnership with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH will host a side event on “Implementing Integrated Climate Risk Management Approaches: A look through Climate Risk Insurance lens”.  The side event is organized as part of the project “Promoting Integrated Mechanisms for Climate Risk Management and Transfer” funded by the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMU).

Objectives

• Sharing country experiences from Barbados, Fiji, and Morocco on how insurance-related approaches are being implemented in partnership with private sector actors, and highlight how they contribute to a comprehensive integrated climate risk management approach.
• Provide insight into current risk transfer efforts that engage the private sector in providing financial protection to support vulnerable countries and/or low-income communities facing the impact of climate change.
• Showcase how Integrated Climate Risk Management approach has the potential to bridge between different government entities by offering synergies in their agendas.

Expected Outcomes

The discussion emerging from this side event should stimulate a dialogue around the added value of integrating risk transfer and disaster risk management approaches and the applicability of this integrated approach in other countries. It will further raise awareness and build knowledge about the importance of multi-stakeholder cooperation, including the public and private sector, civil society and development organisations.

Agenda / Panel

• Integrated Climate Risk Management (ICRM): Concept and speakers introduction
  Ms. Kehinde Balogun (MCII)

• Advancing Climate Risk Insurance: Moving beyond the Agricultural Sector
  Mr. Soenke Kreft (MCII)

• Making SMEs part of the solution: Discussing the role of Climate Risk Insurance in averting Climate Change impacts in an industrial zone in Morocco
  Mr. Abderrahman Amor, (Réseau Enterprise Climate (REC),  Morocco)

• A safer and more resilient Ghana: Mainstreaming risk insurance into national development planning
  Mrs. Charlotte Norman (National Disaster Management Organisation, Ghana)

• Podium Discussion and Q&A with the audience