Insurance and risk transfer

This issue brief explores the climate justice case for catastrophe bonds and how, with some design improvements, these financial instruments can become a tool to more equitably support post-disaster recovery and fund climate resilience.

The objective of the Partnership is to enable Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs), especially low- and middle-income countries, to better prepare financially for shocks – strengthening resilience and unlocking investment and economic growth.

This report compares climate insurance regulation in seven jurisdictions, assessing prudential safeguards and consumer resilience. It finds none strong on both, with gaps in monitoring insurer withdrawals and aligning investment with resilience.

This study uses co-design and household willingness-to-pay evidence to inform multi-hazard microinsurance for low-income Buffalo City households, proposing community distribution, public co-financing and rapid payouts; the design remains untested.

The lawsuit highlights growing pushback against the scores, which are intended to give consumers more insight into homes’ exposure to fire, flood and other climate-related dangers. Nebraska brought its own, similar suit against the company in August.

Banks and insurers finance and protect many of the same homes, businesses and infrastructure, leaving them exposed to the same climate shocks. Yet they often assess these risks using different information, assumptions and time horizons.

Insurers are taking on more risk than they should. If – or when – a major disaster hits, the catastrophe will have far-reaching consequences.

Households absorb much of the cost of disasters: Post-Disaster Needs Assessments from 20 countries in Asia and the Pacific put about 40 per cent of impacts in social and productive sectors. ESCAP sets out three government interventions.

After Cyclone Gezani devastated Madagascar, pre-arranged financing programme, REPAIR, helped mobilize over US$15 million within seven days, supporting emergency assistance, cash-for-work activities and community-led recovery for more than 400,000 people.

Insurwave announced a powerful update and relaunch of its dynamic risk platform, bringing insurers, brokers and fleet owners onto one platform designed to make dynamic risk measurable as it moves, alongside a new brand identity.