Climate Risk and Resilience
Climate risk is business risk
We're world-class problem solvers
The Climate Risk and Resilience team sits at the very heart of Howden, as part of our concerted effort to ensure all of our clients are properly protected and prepared.
We’re a team of over 70 world-class experts, based in the UK, Europe, Asia, and North and South America.
We bring specialist advisors in climate science, insurance and the financial markets, with a blend of backgrounds including the private and public sectors, academia and humanitarian organisations.
This depth and breadth of expertise is a strong driver of innovation, allowing us to design and deliver effective solutions.
We help understand climate risks, build resilience, and use insurance solutions to de-risk the future.
We have a track record of delivering world-first solutions. We’ve created risk transfer products that didn’t exist before, using out-of-the-box thinking for our clients.
Four examples of how we're using insurance to support the climate response
Accelerating the transition to net zero with risk transfer solutions
Our combined insurance, financial markets and climate expertise means we’re uniquely positioned to develop innovative risk transfer solutions.
Our insurance and capital solutions de-risk projects, lowering the cost of capital and helping projects achieve debt and equity financing, to accelerate the transition to a net zero future.
Our risk solutions focus on four key core areas:
- Financing the energy transition
- Adapting to increasingly volatile weather
- Securing the carbon markets
- Protecting food systems and biodiversity
As well as bespoke solutions for individual clients, we have developed groundbreaking, market-making climate risk insurance products.
To date, these include insurance solutions for carbon capture and storage facilities (CCS), including leakage of carbon dioxide (CO2), as well as groundbreaking products for the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM).
Supporting urban resilience planning
Focused on embedding insurance expertise at the heart of city resilience, the Global Risk and Resilience Fellowship (GRRF) is a joint initiative with the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) and Resilient Cities Network (R-Cities).
It brings together city leaders with a deep understanding of urban resilience challenges and those with the expertise and resources to overcome those challenges. The objective being to collaboratively develop solutions that empower cities to build a safe, equitable and sustainable future for all.
As part of the Fellowship, Howden created the first-of-its-kind top talent secondment programme. placing five insurance professionals into five cities’ leadership teams for three to six months each. Read the latest GRRF report (PDF).
Meet two 2024 fellows and learn about their work in Oakland, California, and Cape Town, South Africa.
Harnessing data and technology in climate risk management and resilience solutions
The Resilience Laboratory combines Howden’s deep sector expertise with Microsoft’s cutting-edge solutions to create advanced climate risk solutions for our clients to optimise the big decisions ahead.
Empowering businesses and the public sector, the Howden Resilience Laboratory is a collaborative space for our clients to understand the climate risks they face and make informed strategic decisions to de-risk climate and nature action.
Supporting conservation efforts and sustainable finance through insurance
Ahead of 2024's COP16 in Cali, Colombia, we launched "Through the Wilderness: The Role of Insurance in Unlocking Nature Finance" in collaboration with Pollination. The report highlights the potential of insurance to mitigate climate related risks, attract investments and address the biodiversity crisis.
Financing for nature needs to triple by 2030. The insurance sector has a key role to play in unlocking the capital needed to deliver on nature positive and net-zero ambitions. Nature also plays an integral role in building resilience to natural catastrophes but is underleveraged. Therefore nature finance must be unlocked at pace and at scale.
Read our latest related reports
The great enabler: A collection of insurance solutions powering $10 trillion of climate finance
Our whitepaper, a collaboration between Howden, Boston Consulting Group and the High-Level Climate Champions, illustrates the great enabling role of insurance with real-world examples.
The bigger picture: The $10 trillion role of insurance in mobilising the climate transition
This research, jointly published with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), is on the role of insurance in mobilising the climate transition. According to our findings, over half of the $19 trillion already committed to financing the climate transition through to 2030 will require additional insurance coverage.
Greening the way: Navigating environmental and climate risks in insurance due diligence
A collaboration between our M&A and Climate Risk and Resilience teams, offering forward-thinking insurance solutions to detect and shield against climate risks in transactions.