14. November
National Adaptation Planning and Insurance – Japan International Cooperation Agency
Contribution to COP19: opportunities and challenges of insurance
Dr Koko Warner (UNU EHS) delivered a presentation on the opportunities and challenges of insurance to the National Adaptation Plan and Insurance event run by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). JICA is supporting the Government of Indonesia in taking a range of climate change initiatives, which covers, among others, the formulation on a national adaptation plan as well as monitoring and evaluation of the progress of adaptation. It also includes a support for a pilot implementation of agricultural insurance targeting rice farmers in Java. This session aimed to contribute to COP19 on the enhanced action on adaptation by sharing and discussing the findings from the cooperation between Japan and Indonesia.
More information will be updated over the coming weeks.
15. November
MCII Side Event – Perspectives on Climate Resilience: Revisiting the Social Role of Insurance
During the MCII side event, experts showcased the latest resilience- and risk transfer innovations in SIDS & Africa with the aim to inform the discussions around Loss & Damage and Adaptation at COP-19 by presenting relevant input on:
(i) The co-benefits of insurance in the context of risk management;
(ii) Examples of institutional set-ups from regional contexts including Africa & SIDS;
(iii) How both, the insurance industry and the public sector can work together on making decisions that support climate resilient pathways.
Tentative Panel:
1. Co-benefits of insurance in the context of risk management
- Christoph Bals (MCII VICE-CHAIR, GERMANWATCH)
- Susan Gille (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, GIZ)
2. Examples of institutional set-ups from regional contexts including Africa and SIDS
- (tbc) Representative of the Jamaican Delegation
- David Goodman (ARC)
- Richard Choularton (World Food Programme, WFP)
3. How can the insurance industry and the public sector work together more effectively on decision making to support climate-resilient pathways?
- Norbert Gorißen (International Climate Initiative of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, BMU)
- (tbc) Remco Fischer (UNEP-FI)
The MCII Side event was run in conjunction with the Business and Industry (BINGO) Day. For more information on the broader BINGO Day program, please click HERE.
19. November
Caring for Climate Busines Forum – Ensuring climate resilience: making climate insurance available to vulnerable communities. Launch of the 2013 Insurance Industry Statement
It is undisputed that the physical impacts of climate change and/or climate variability will increasingly lead to loss and damage, both human and economic, and those particularly vulnerable communities in developing countries will be hit hard. Given the scale and political dimension of this issue—many of the most vulnerable countries have contributed least to the climate change problem—the question of how the international community can and should support climate change resilience in developing countries has become a central topic in the international climate change negotiations under the UNFCCC.
The significant experience and skills gathered in recent years in the areas of disaster risk reduction, micro-insurance, index-based weather insurance and other parametric schemes, and alternative risk transfer instruments, has stimulated thinking, initiatives and international negotiations on how the benefits from these risk management approaches and risk transfer instruments could be seized in the context of climate change adaptation.
Key to achieving climate resilience is access to sound risk assessment, management and transfer. The insurance industry possesses considerable expertise and know-how in these areas. This session will explore how insurance companies and governments can work together to provide to vulnerable communities, particularly in developing countries, access to the insurance services needed to better cope with weather extremes.
Panelist:
- Peter Hoeppe, Head of Geo Risk Research/Corporate Climate Centre, MunichRe
- Rowan Douglas, CEO Global Analytics, Willis
- Paul Watkinson, Head of the Climate Negotiation Team, Ministry of Ecology, France
- Pa Ousman, Director, Department of Water Resources and UNFCCC Focal Point, The Gambia (tbc)
- World Meteorological Organization (tbc)
Moderator:
- UNEP
Launched at this event will also be the 2013 INSURANCE INDUSTRY STATEMENT.
For more information on the forum please read THE SESSION BRIEF.
MCII-KfW Joint Dinner: Expert Perspectives on Adaptation, Loss and Damage, and Comprehensive Risk Management
MCII and the KfW Development Bank brought together experts in the field for an informal dinner to explore potential tools and methods available for the effective assessment and management of risks posed by climate variability and change in the light of climate-resilient development pathways. MCII and KfW intend to formalise this group so as to provide a platform which could become a regular forum to allow for an exchange of information in an informal setting on climate risk management.
The main long term objective for the forum are:
1. To enhance coordination, synergies and linkages among various organizations, institutions and frameworks by bringing together relevant experts from different backgrounds, including stakeholders with an operational focus, science & research, as well as policy.
2. To offer expertise in enabling the development and support of approaches to address adaptation and loss & damage in the following key areas:
- Identifying options as well as designing and implementing country-driven risk management strategies and approaches, including risk reduction, risk transfer and risk sharing mechanisms;
- Implementing comprehensive climate risk management approaches, including scaling up and replicating good practices and pilot initiatives;
- Promoting an enabling environment that would facilitate financial approaches and the involvement of relevant stakeholders in climate risk management;
- How approaches to address loss and damage associated with the impacts of climate change may be integrated into climate-resilient development processes
20. November
MCII Press Briefing
MCII delivered a press briefing on 20 November 2013 at 10.30am in Press Conference Room 2.The focus of the briefing was on: How the insurance industry and public decision makers can work together more effectively on building climate resilient communities and economies.The full MCII Press Briefing can be viewed here.
Planelist:
- Peter Hoeppe – Munich Re
- Koko Warner – UNU EHS
- Thomas Loster – Munich Re Foundation
22. November
MCII Media Workshop: Loss and Damage, Risk Management, Insurance and Livelihoods
Comming soon