As a global systemic risk, unprecedented in its reach and impact, climate change is a top priority for governments, multilateral organisations and civil society. The effects of climate change are already being felt in all countries, but disproportionately by poor people in developing countries. It is incumbent on us all to accelerate the economy-wide transition to a net-zero economy and ramp up investment in climate adaptation and resilience to limit the worst impacts of climate change. This effort requires unprecedented co-operation across policy, finance, technology, capacity building and development.
“Up to 132 million people will be pushed into extreme poverty by climate change by 2030.”
World Bank
Protecting communities and building resilience
We leverage our broad range of expertise on physical and transition climate risk to provide technical assistance to governments, development finance institutions and non-governmental organisations to build the resilience of societies and natural ecosystems. Working with governments and the world’s development finance institutions, we help build climate resilience into the fabric of policies and plans that guide future development. Our Climate QuantifiedTM suite of data and analytical tools allow us to undertake exposure and vulnerability analysis globally. Combining our analytics with decades of experience in policy, planning, risk financing, ecosystem resilience, and communications makes us the perfect partner to build climate resilience into public sector and development projects and programmes.
Our Climate and Resilience Solutions
Our Climate QuantifiedTM datasets and sophisticated analytics help you identify climate hazards and impacts at the national, regional and local levels. By combining this information with socio-economic data, we undertake detailed climate risk and vulnerability assessments according to various climate scenarios and time periods, identifying hotspots of highly climate-vulnerable populations or infrastructure. This helps governments and agencies prioritise investments and other policies and plans to manage climate risk. Using a scenario development process that matches climate scenarios with socio-economic forecasts and policy development scenarios, we help policymakers make the best possible decisions in the face of uncertainty. Using this information, we provide technical assistance in support of national and regional climate adaptation planning. Tailored decision support tools and frameworks can also be developed to ensure that climate risk considerations are integrated into decision making processes across all levels of government.
Our Climate Transition Analytics platform enables countries and sub-national sovereigns to diagnose where their economies may be most at risk from policy, market and technology changes in a net-zero transition. Using our bottom-up methodology to calculate Climate Value at Risk (CVaR) that blends asset by asset commodity models with macroeconomic impacts, such as changes to taxation, royalties, interest rates and GDP, our ‘sovereign risk’ analysis enables countries to identify exposure by sector and the transmission of risk back to public finances. Our methodology also evaluates the upside opportunities presented by different transition scenarios. This enables national and sub-national governments to diagnose the sources of risk to their economies from a net-zero transition.
We provide advisory services to help governments, agencies and other relevant entities to develop bankable climate adaptation projects that can attract finance from major climate funds and the private sector. We also offer training and support for applications to the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund, and the Global Environment Facility.
Natural ecosystems play a significant role in risk reduction but are often degraded and face a range of external shocks and pressures, including from climate change. Natural assets are at risk, but they are largely neglected on balance sheets, so they are frequently missing from risk management frameworks. We are at the forefront of innovations to finance the resilience of natural ecosystems, from coral reefs to forests. Our work covers risk quantification that integrates the value of nature-based solutions to innovate insurance products designed to protect the ecosystems themselves. Our solutions help incorporate nature into mainstream public- and private-sector risk management frameworks, including unlocking sources of capital for investment.
The impacts from natural hazards continue to far outpace investments to strengthen homes, businesses, and critical infrastructure. We design, develop and implement innovative disaster risk financing solutions across regional, national and municipal levels to build resilience to diverse perils worldwide. We develop parametric insurance solutions through various investment channels that pay out based on the severity of the event itself, not an evaluation of loss. These are flexible in pay-out design and coverage and can stand alone or complement traditional indemnity policies while furthering sustainability and ESG goals. For over a decade, starting with the ground-breaking Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) and continuing with programs in Africa and the Pacific region, Willis Towers Watson’s parametric expertise has provided liquidity, flexibility, funds for resilience, and risk-management innovation.
Our advanced Climate QuantifiedTM data and analytics can be used to support project planning and preparation. Combining hazard data with socio-economic data, we can identify infrastructure, populations and ecosystems that are especially vulnerable to climate impacts. Information can be displayed in various formats, including geospatial mapping, charts and graphs or narratives, to support decision-making and be incorporated into technical reports. Our advisory services can also help with project design, financing and implementation, and communications.
Our learning and communications services support you to communicate effectively about climate change, risk and resilience. Combining technical climate expertise with the latest scientific understanding of climate-specific communications techniques, our team of communications specialists can help translate technical material into engaging content that can build awareness and drive action. We develop values-based narratives for a wide range of target audiences, ensuring that audiences can engage with climate change in a meaningful and helpful way, suitable to their needs and context.
Our work in practice
