Biodiversity is the variety of all life on earth. It is indispensable for combating climate change, but it is rapidly declining worldwide. Governments, companies, financial institutions and consumers: we can all contribute to the preservation of biodiversity. That is why Dutch insurers are taking steps to integrate biodiversity into their policy and practice.
Biodiversity is the basis of healthy nature and a stable society. Protecting it is not only a social duty for insurers, but also a strategic choice. The loss of biodiversity has many causes: from climate change and intensive land and water use to excessive exploitation of plants and animals, pollution and the arrival of invasive species.
A new international guide from the Nature – United Nations Environment – Finance Initiative, co-developed by Dutch insurers, offers practical tools for non-life, life and health insurers to strengthen biodiversity. These guidelines help insurers to:
Identify their nature-related impacts, risks and opportunities;
Identify and implement actions that help companies and citizens reduce their impact on nature loss or make a positive contribution to biodiversity.
Manage nature-related risks by actively protecting biodiversity.
Promote sustainable returns and healthy ecosystems, leading to reduced economic risks for society.
This approach is based on TNFD (Taskforce on Nature related Financial Disclosure), is in line with the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which is embraced worldwide as a guideline for nature restoration and is in line with the European Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. This strategy is based on the following principles for sustainable insurance from the United Nations Environment – Finance Initiative:
Insuring a resilient nature-positive future
Global guide for insurers on setting priority actions for nature
Part 1: Rooted in Risk
Framing nature-related assessments for insurers
Part 2: Breaking Ground
Getting practical with nature-related assessments for insurers (to be published in Q4 2025).
Regulators such as EIOPA and the NGFS (Network for Greening Financial Systems) have also published many tools. Scenarios, opinions, but also how insurers currently identify, measure and manage biodiversity risks as part of the Solvency II risk management framework.
In addition, the TCFD (Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) and the TNFD (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures) publish reports on the methodologies and risk factors on their websites.
The Dutch Association of Insurers previously published a series of articles on biodiversity and non-life insurers, in which practical examples and insights from the sector are shared:
Biodiversity for non-life insurers (1) with the WWF
Biodiversity for non-life insurers (2) with Univé
Biodiversity for non-life insurers (3) with Deloitte
The Dutch Association of Insurers helps with knowledge sharing in the field of investment and non-life insurance. In addition, insurers can make an important contribution to combating biodiversity loss and promoting nature restoration through their investment policy. This is done, among other things, through the IRBC 2.0 process.
In this process, we work on knowledge building, best practices are shared and current issues are discussed. The aim is to structurally embed biodiversity in a responsible investment policy.
A growing number of Dutch insurers have joined the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge. This means that the signatories will set biodiversity targets and measure the impact on the basis of four core strategies to protect biodiversity:
Impact investments – targeted investments in solutions that demonstrably contribute to nature restoration and biodiversity protection.
Exclusions – of sectors and companies that cause demonstrable, often irreparable damage to biodiversity, such as large-scale deforestation, destructive mining and illegal fishing.
Active ownership – through dialogue and voting policy, insurers put pressure on companies to organise their activities in a more nature-friendly and sustainable way.
Risk assessment – measuring the biodiversity footprint of portfolio companies and integrating biodiversity risks into investment analysis and risk modelling.
More manuals, including on how to set goals, can be found on the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation, the ESG investment framework for the theme of Biodiversity and via tools and guidelines of the IRBC Agreement (ended in 2023 after a term of five years).
The subject of biodiversity is also discussed during meetings such as the Climate Afternoon of the Association. These initiatives show that biodiversity is alive and well within the sector and that cooperation is essential to arrive at effective solutions.
Are you or a colleague interested in tackling biodiversity more broadly within the Association or your organisation, or do you have other ideas? Please contact Timo Brinkman or David Baas and build a resilient future with us.