Swiss Re pledges $10bn to climate resilience
Swiss Re pledged $10bn in insurance protection and expertise to help nations strengthen climate resilience by 2020 at the Climate Summit in New York this week.
At the UN-led Climate Summit in New York, convened on Tuesday 23 September by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, put pressure on governments to adopt aggressive domestic strategies for reducing emissions and investing in clean energy technologies.
Swiss Re's Group CEO, Michel Liès, addressed government leaders at the UN-led Climate Summit in New York. He pledged to offer $10 billion in insurance capacity and expertise to help nations make reality of the stringent climate strategies required by 2020.
Liès affirmed the insurance industry's commitment to work with the international community to help increase climate resilience. He also explained that aligning capital and community interests via the mechanism of insurance is a very effective way forward.
“This not only increases shock absorbing capacity, but adds rigor in terms of risk analysis and helps to incentivize risk reduction,” he said.
Liès went on to pledge financial capacity and expertise to support governmental climate action: "By the year 2020, Swiss Re commits to having advised 50 sovereigns and sub-sovereigns on climate risk resilience, and to have offered them protection of $10bn against this risk," he said.
