Insurance & Climate Risk Americas 2019

Registration and morning coffee

Welcome address

Peter Cripps, Editor, Environmental Finance

KEYNOTE ADDRESS: How the state of New York is approaching climate risk and resilience

Linda Lacewell, Superintendent, New York State Department of Financial Services

KEYNOTE PANEL: Engaging with climate risk with both sides of the balance sheet

• How can insurers embed environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks into their underwriting functions?
• How can different lines of business be viewed though this framework? How will this feed through to pricing and products?
• What has been the reaction to moves by global insurers to move away from fossil fuel coverage?
• How are insurers assessing climate-related risks in the risk management and actuarial function?
• Which parts of investor portfolios are most exposed to transition and climate risk?
• How immediate is the threat of transition risk on asset values?
• How can scenario analysis be conducted in such a way to include both sides of the balance sheet?
• Where are the opportunities for insurers?

Moderator: Peter Cripps, Editor, Environmental Finance

Panelists:

Barry Franklin, Chief Risk Officer, Zurich North America
Rob Wesseling, Chief Executive Officer, The Co-operators Group
Philip Witherington, Chief Financial Officer, Manulife
Nikhil da Victoria Lobo, Managing Director, Head of Americas, Americas Public Sector Solutions Group, Swiss Re
Karsten Berlage, Managing Director, Regional Head, Americas, Allianz Risk Transfer 

PANEL: Ensuring sustainability and insuring resilience

• What can insurers do to meet directive-led climate goals and build resilience?
• How can the insurance industry incentivize clients to invest in resilience measures?
• What is the long-term outlook for resilience building? What else could the industry be thinking about?
• How are municipalities, states and corporates working with the insurance industry to mitigate climate risk and build resilience?

Moderator: Franklin Nutter, President, Reinsurance Association of America

Panelists:

Mike Byrnes, Senior Vice President Veolia Solutions, Veolia North America
Michael Cohen, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, RenaissanceRe
George Bradner, Property and Casualty Director, Connecticut Insurance Department                       
David Levy, Core Faculty Member, Sustainable Solutions Lab, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Eric Wilson, Deputy Director, Land Use and Buildings, NYC Mayor's Office of Resiliency

PRESENTATION: Climate change and the law – growing litigation risks

• What's the legal landscape when it comes to litigation and growing climate risk?
• Will the current corporate approach to climate risk increase litigation risk?
• What should insurers be thinking about? Will attribution science be a game-changer?
• Litigation in the power and utilities industry: is this becoming a riskier line of business to insure? What can be learned from the PG&E example?
• Can governments be sued for failing to adequately mitigate against climate risk?

Speaker: Alice Hill, Senior Fellow for Climate Change Policy, The Council on Foreign Relations

PRESENTATION: The US insurance industry, fossil fuels and climate change

Insurance companies particularly in Europe have started to divest from and cease underwriting coal and tar sands companies. How are US insurers responding to this trend?

Speaker: Ross Hammond, Senior Strategist, Insure Our Future, The Sunrise Project

PANEL: Emerging markets and the critical role they play in climate resilience

• How are insurance regulators in emerging markets approaching the issue of climate risk and disclosure legislation?
• Is climate risk in the list of top risks for insurers in emerging markets? If not, why not?
• Where are insurers attempting to close the protection gap?
• What are the ESG and climate investment options in places where investment is heavily geared towards federal funds and sovereign bonds?

Moderator: Leonardo Martinez-Diaz, Global Director, Sustainable Finance Center, World Resources Institute

Panelists:

Rodrigo Botti, Chief Executive Officer, Terra Brasis Resseguros
Craig Churchill, Chief, Social Finance, International Labour Organization
Darío Luna, Member, CCRIF Central America Management Committee
Juana Francisca Llano, Vice President, Suramericana
Keyan Shahdi, Chief Risk Officer, SCOR Global P&C Americas

PRESENTATION: Wildfire and flood risk

• How has the risk landscape for both perils changed as a result of changes in population density and climate?
• How has this fed through to the today's risk ratings and the different metrics used to assess risk?
• Why is wildfire so hard to model?
• Flood risk: how has the flood risk landscape evolved in the US? How are insurers viewing flood risk in the market today?
• What steps is the industry taking to provide alternative solutions for insuring flood risk?

Speaker: Guenter Kryszon, Executive Underwriting Officer, Global Property, Markel

PRESENTATION: Ocean risks associated with changing oceans and the impacts on the insurance industry

• What is ocean risk?
• Why is the ocean so important to the planet?
• What can insurers do to help manage/ mitigate the risks associated with a changing ocean?
• The impact and importance of natural assets in terms of ocean risk.

Speaker: Andrew MacFarlane, Chief Actuary Reinsurance Bermuda, XL Reinsurance, a division of AXA XL

PANEL: Assessing physical climate risk – key developments in catastrophe risk modelling

• How are insurers adapting their cat risk models?
• How do you best incorporate climate risk in risk models? Which perils do you start with?
• Can nat cat models adequately estimate a changing climate or are they underestimating eventual losses?
• How is flood risk modelling evolving?
• What impact have the California wild fires had on fire risk models and risk assessments?
• How do you understand and model the human element, especially with fire risk?
• How can the insurance industry be more forward thinking in using climate data?

Moderator: Edward Mishambi, Senior Vice President, Head of Risk Management, RenaissanceRe

Panelists:

Alp Can, Actuary, Climate Index Working Group, Actuaries Climate Index
Erdem Karaca, Head Cat Perils Americas, Swiss Re
Megan Thomas, Chief Underwriting Officer, AXIS Capital

Kevin Cei, Director of Client Solutions, Jupiter Intelligence

INVESTMENT FOCUS: Delving into the risks and opportunities for investment strategies

• How to analyze equity and fixed income portfolios in line with climate risk
• How is underwriting asset level data being used by the investment side of the balance sheet?
• Real assets, infrastructure and real estate: how are they best understood within this context?
• Scenario analysis: what should investment teams be thinking about?
• Flood risk: are investors prepared for the impact on corporate disruption and equities?
• How are investment teams preparing for transition risks? How siloed or holistic is the approach?
• When regulatory compliance isn't enough: how to future proof investment portfolios
• Clean energy: what are the opportunities for insurers to scale clean energy investments while meeting their risk-return requirements?

Moderator: Peter Cripps, Editor, Environmental Finance

Panelists: Rodolphe Bocquet, CEO, Beyond Ratings

Peter Uhlenbruch, Investor Engagement Officer, Asset Owners Disclosure Project (AODP)

Alan Hsu, Global Industry Analyst and Portfolio Manager, Wellington Management

Cyrus Lotfipour, Vice President, Head of Models and R&D, MSCI ESG Research

PANEL: The view from Canada

• How is the Canadian insurance industry approaching the subject of climate risk?
• How does this relate to the wider sustainable finance approach within the country?
• In what way is the Central Bank working with the NGFS and what impact is this likely to have?

Moderator: Michael Hurley, Staff Writer, Environmental Finance

Panelist: Don Forgeron, President & Chief Executive Officer, Insurance Bureau of Canada

Tiff Macklem, Chair, Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance, Dean, University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management

Close of conference and networking drinks reception