The international community more and more realizes the need for urgent and concrete action in mitigating climate change and addressing its impacts by effectively supporting particularly vulnerable countries’ own efforts to manage climate change induced disaster risk. This need was particularly recognised during the June 2014 G7 Summit as well as the 2014 UN Climate Summit in September, and was a main issue during the UNFCCC COP-20 in 2014, the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in March 2015 as well as the 2015 G7 Summit, the UN Post-2015 Summit in 2015 and the UNFCCC COP 21, which is to decide on a new climate agreement.

The G7 has a key role to play in pushing this agenda and supporting its implementation. By initiating a Climate Risk Insurance Initiative (G7 CRII) it acknowledged the central role insurance plays in a comprehensive climate risk management approach. As a risk transfer instrument, climate risk insurance is able to mitigate adverse consequences of climate-change related extreme weather events and can minimize the cost and optimize the timing of meeting post-disaster funding needs without compromising development goals, fiscal stability and help to alleviate human suffering while decreasing the loss of livelihoods. Therefore, the overall objective of the G7 CRII is to stimulate the creation of effective climate risk insurance markets in relevant regions worldwide.

Under the overall guidance of the German Federal Ministry for Development and Economic Cooperation (BMZ) and in cooperation with the German Development Bank (KfW) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), MCII contributes to the G7 CRII by facilitating dialogue among stakeholder groups, exploring barriers, and assessing the needs of different country groupings and stakeholders vis-a-vis the G7 CRII. MCII activities include private sector engagement as well as capacity building on resilience, insurance and risk reduction. MCII will draw on its wide network of experts to help complement the design of the G7 CRII with regards to providing technical advice and expert insight.