With climate change topping the list once again for PwC’s “ReiThe report on nsurance Banana Skins, “it is not surprising” because it is more dominant than all the major events that the industry has seen in the last 12 months, says Jim Bichard, Partner and Global Insurance Leader on PwC.
When Reinsurance News spoke to Bichard at the annual RVS event in Monte Carlo, Bichard explained that what was different this year, however, was the frequency of climate-related events, as well as the fact that the severity was also occurring. .
“Reinsurers are being hit from more angles than ever before and the magnitude of these events continues to increase. Qsheave‘s partly due to missing cost inflation compounding some of the other risksbut this is also due to the effect of climate change continuees that will be felt around the world.”
This is clearly shown following the record-breaking global heatwave in July 2023, which clearly shows how climate change has increased as a significant risk for reinsurers.
“The easy solution COME not on participate in several deep layers of reinsurance because if there are frequency issues you can keep yourself on top of that, but that’s not one option – The whole point of insurance is to provide protection.
“If reinsurers are trying to be relevant and objective, then it is more about prevention as well as protection.
He continued: “I think the solutions have to involve the public–private partnerships, working with governments and state agencies and trying to make communities stronger in the first place.
“Then also bring the technology and the data that we have in the industry on support primary insurers and their customers to mitigate the effects of climate change in the future.
“At the end of the day, we have more data than any individual government or individual company to understand what the impacts are.”
