The G7 Initiative on Climate Risk Insurance aims to increase access to direct or indirect insurance coverage against the impacts of climate change for up to 400 million of the most vulnerable people in developing countries by 2020.

According to recent estimates, only about 100 million people in developing countries and emerging economies are currently covered by climate risk insurance.

Also known as “InsuResilience”, the initiative was adopted at the G7 Summit in Elmau/Germany in June 2015 and is to be implemented in close partnership between the G7 states, developing countries and emerging economies.

The G7 recognizes that significant funding will be necessary and can leverage several billion USD of risk from the private insurance and re-insurance industry.

Innovative Approaches Needed to Reach the Most Vulnerable

The overall objective of the initiative is to stimulate the creation of effective climate risk insurance markets and the smart use of insurance-related schemes for people and risk-prone assets in developing countries.

While the initiative focuses primarily on insurance instruments, it is to be complemented with innovative and non -traditional approaches in order to reach the poor and most vulnerable.

The G7 is currently preparing a rapid action plan of initial key measures ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP21, 30 November to 11 December). The main focus of the rapid action plan is on the expansion of existing regional risk facilities.

Photo credit: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.