Insurers and science join forces to combat climate change

The Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) and the Dutch Association of Insurers are working together to combat (the consequences of) climate change. By combining and exchanging knowledge, skills and experience, both institutions want to bring focus to research into combating climate change in order to prevent climate damage as much as possible.

"Through this partnership, we want to focus on research that actually makes a difference in combating climate change and preventing and quickly dealing with climate-related damage," says Richard Weurding, general director of the Association. The fact that the damage is increasing because the number of weather extremes is increasing due to climate change is already noticeable in the Netherlands. "For example, the storms over the Atlantic Ocean have shifted about 200 kilometers to the north in the past 60 years. Not only through the climate scenarios and the Early Warning Centre of covenant partner KNMI, but also with the help of the IVM , we want to increase our insights and take advantage of them. After all, insurers are involved in climate change on several fronts: from the socially responsible investment policy via the IRBC, insuring extreme weather and insuring sustainable developments such as the energy transition."

"Through this partnership, the IVM can better align education and research into climate risks with practice," says Pieter van Beukering, director of the IVM. "In this way, we increase the social impact of the research that is in line with the mission of the Science for Sustainability profile theme at VU Amsterdam."
"As an interdisciplinary research institute, the IVM is working on various research projects into changes in extreme weather due to climate change, the consequences for the financial sector and its customers, and solutions to limit those consequences," says Wouter Botzen, professor of economics of climate change and natural disasters at the IVM. "Joining forces with insurers is a logical step to further strengthen this research expertise."

Pieter van Beukering (IVM) and Richard Weurding (Verbond)

In order to gain better insight into the specific needs of insurers and how research can connect to this, the Association subsequently organised a round table with insurers to arrive at a joint research agenda for the coming years. Both investment specialists and insurance technical specialists are present here. Weurding: "The sector is confronted with important questions. How do we keep customers' climate-related risks insurable? Can we improve the awareness of our customers? Can we make more of a fist to accelerate the energy transition in the Netherlands? How are we going to make sustainable damage repair and prevention commonplace as a sector? And what role should and can we play in the necessary climate-proof redesign of our country? Science can help us as an industry to provide an answer to this."