Insurance Europe has published its response to the European Commission’s consultation on the European Union’s (EU) strategy for adapting to climate change, and has outlined several recommendations for improvement.
Insurance Europe has expressed full support for the aims of the EU’s Adaptation Strategy, which was implemented in 2013 in an effort to encourage member-states to make Europe more climate-resilient.
However, the re/insurance federation also stressed that the strategy should focus more on increasing the knowledge and awareness surrounding member-state risk profiles and exposures, and on the insurability of natural catastrophe risks.
In particular, Insurance Europe highlighted how essential risk prevention and risk management are for the socio-economic wellbeing of many countries, and how these measures need to be more stringently and more universally implemented.
The federation suggests that member-states currently rely too heavily on post-event funding. As such, prevention and adaption measures tend to be neglected, which can lead to adverse long-term effects.
Insurance Europe also underscored the need for more dialogue between member-states and other stakeholders, and suggested that insurers can provide beneficial support through research, and by encouraging prevention measures, delivering financial solutions, tracking trends, and defining problems posed by climate change.
Nevertheless, the response recognised the Commission’s ongoing efforts to support public-private cooperation, and expressed approval over methods used to engage with the private sector and member-states, such as workshops and seminars.
Among its other recommendations, the federation emphasised the beneficial effects of shrewd insurance investments and called for a greater supply of sustainable investment assets, as well as adjustments to regulatory barriers for long-term investments.
