Risk dialogue and awareness

To help shape the decision-making environment for climate change, Swiss Re lends active support to initiatives which it considers in line with its position.

These actions complement and extend its broad awareness-building and dialogue programme. Decisions to support a specific course of action are based on Swiss Re’s assessment of the climate change benefit rather than on any political considerations.

This process has brought Swiss Re into contact with leading climate stakeholders from the public and private sectors and helped to develop a multi-dimensional understanding of the issue.

Our objectives

Selective list of activities

Advocacy and political dialogue

2008	In cooperation with the Global Humanitarian Forum, Swiss Re and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society co-hosted in Geneva, a high level roundtable on “Index insurance for climate risk management & poverty reduction”.
	Swiss Re’s CEO is among more than 90 global business leaders who deliver practical climate change plans to G8 leaders. Facilitated by the World Economic Forum and World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the recommendations outline an environmentally effective and economically efficient long-term policy framework to succeed the Kyoto Accord.
2007	Jacques Aigrain was invited by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, to speak at a high-level gathering of world leaders on climate change. The event took place on 24 September at the UN’s headquarters in New York. As one of only four business representatives at the meeting, the Swiss Re CEO reported on “The challenge of adaptation – from vulnerability to resilience”. His speech included a call for new forms of partnership between the public and private sectors to tackle the consequences of climate change. Swiss Re signs the ClimateWise principles developed by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), leading global insurers, reinsurers, brokers and Lloyd’s of London to promote action on climate change. Key areas covered include encouraging greater climate-friendly behaviour among customers, investment strategy and risk analysis. Swiss Re was a sponsor of the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit in New York City on May 14 - 17, 2007. The Summit brought mayors and other city and business leaders from 47 world cities to New York City to develop a course of action for addressing the issues of climate change and how cities can play a part in helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Roger W. Ferguson, Chairman of Swiss Re America Holding, made a speech on the topic of "The Risk & Opportunity of Climate Change – a reinsurer’s perspective”.   Andrew Castaldi, Swiss Re Head of Catastrophe Perils, Americas, gave testimony on the “Impact of Global Warming on Private and Federal Insurance” before The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The Scientific Expert Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development (UNSEG) together with the United Nations Foundation and The Scientific Research Society released a new report "Confronting Climate Change: Avoiding the unmanageable and managing the unavoidable." Jacques Dubois, retired member of the Executive Board and Chairman of Swiss Re America was a coordinating author.
	Swiss Re signs a joint declaration issued by the Global Roundtable on Climate Change (CroCC) together with some 100 companies and organisations. A central point of the signatories’ proposal is the establishment of a global market price mechanism for carbon-dioxide emissions.
	Roger Ferguson, Chairman of Swiss Re America Holding, spoke at the corporate leaders panel for the legislators forum on climate change in Washington. The event was attended by US Senators (including Senators Lieberman and McCain), US Congressmen and senior government leaders from around the world.
2006	Swiss Re CEO Jacques Aigrain is invited by UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett to participate in a panel discussion on “Climate Security – Risks & Opportunities for the Global Economy” at the Council on Foreign Relations in NYC.
	Swiss Re is a partner of the Clinton Global Initiative; Jacques Aigrain participates at the annual meeting and in a panel discussion on “Companies Saving Energy”.
	Swiss Re CRO Christian Mumenthaler speaks at the panel discussion on ”The State of the World – Climate Change” at the 2006 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
	Jacques Dubois, Member of the Executive Board and Chairman of Swiss Re America Holding speaks about commercialisation opportunities arising from climate change mitigation at the “Fourth Annual Drought Summit” called by the New Mexico Governor's Drought Task Force.
	Jacques Dubois participates in discussions at Long Beach, California, leading to the “Global Warming Pact” between UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on renewable energy and emissions markets. The two leaders sign a mission statement to “commit to urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote low-carbon technologies".
	Swiss Re experts speak at the State of Maine’s conference “Climate Change in Maine – Reducing Risks, Reducing Costs and Planning for the Future” in Portland, Maine.
	Swiss Re writes or supports letters to Sir Nicholas Stern, Head of the UK Government Economic Service, commending his review of the economics of climate change; and to Californian Governor Schwarzenegger commending him for taking bold and decisive action to reduce carbon emissions in California by signing the AB32 bill; as well as supports a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel developed by The Climate Group, asking her to make climate change a top priority during Germany’s presidency of the G8 in 2007.
	Swiss Re hosts the Informal Ministerial Consultations for COP 12 and COP/MOP 2 at the Swiss Re Centre for Dialogue in Rüschlikon, Switzerland and participated as a member of the Swiss delegation.
	Swiss Re hosts the 7th U.S. Congressional Staff Tour to Switzerland at the Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue and speaks about Swiss Re’s approach to climate change issues.
	Swiss Re is invited to meetings at the British Embassy in Washington and Berne to discuss climate change impacts on the economy and society.

Prior to 2006

Dialogue and cooperation with climate related organisations

2006	Member of the Swiss Re Board of Directors and former CEO John Coomber speaks at the “Global Roundtable on Climate Change” at Columbia University.
	Swiss Re is the subject of a case study in a Pew Research Center report (“Corporate Strategies on Climate Change”), and attends an expert panel discussion at the report launch in Washington DC and at the University of Michigan.
	Swiss Re continues support (since 2004) for The Climate Group in advancing business and government leadership on climate change. In 2006, John Coomber joins The Climate Group’s board of trustees. In 2006, Swiss Re seconds Chris Walker, Head Sustainability Business Development, to The Climate Group for an 18-month period as US Director based on the East Coast.
	Swiss Re continues its participation (since 2005) in the Global Roundtable on Climate Change convened by Jeffrey Sachs of Colombia University’s Earth Institute.

Prior to 2006 

Industry dialogue

2006	Swiss Re CEO Jacques Aigrain chairs a panel on climate change at the Geneva Association’s annual meeting. The Geneva Association is a global non-profit organisation formed by some 80 CEOs of the largest insurance companies in Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Australia. Its main goal is to research the growing economic importance of insurance activities in the major sectors of the economy.
	Jacques Dubois, Member of the Executive Board and Chairman of Swiss Re America Holding speaks at GLOBE 2006, the biennial trade fair and conference on business and the environment in Vancouver.
	Swiss Re Australia, together with other roundtable members of the Australian Business Roundtable on Climate Change, launches the Roundtable’s climate change report in Sydney at an exclusive event with journalists from key Australian media.
	Swiss Re addresses a board meeting of the Reinsurance Association of America, raising awareness and presenting an overview of the latest scientific research on climate change –including the results of a recent Swiss Re study of European windstorms.
	Swiss Re presents its climate change strategy to the president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Prior to 2006 

Public awareness-raising

2006	Swiss Re participates in an expert panel discussion at the launch of Al Gore's movie “An Inconvenient Truth” in Zurich, together with Al Gore and other climate experts.
	During the year, Swiss Re climate experts give approximately 80 interviews on climate change to media including the following: The Economist, Reuters, Financial Times, Bloomberg, CNBC, US News & World Report, the Associated Press, Business Week, Fortune, Finanz & Wirtschaft, NZZ am Sonntag, Le Temps, and The Scientific American.
	In 2005–2006, Swiss Re is a major sponsor of The Climate Group’s publication “NorthSouthEastWest” as well as the related exhibition which travels to major cities around the world. The project commissioned ten of the world’s top photographers to bring together graphic images of climate change in countries around the world.

Prior to 2006


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