The ambition of the Fellowship is to enable public-private collaboration by bringing together city leaders and private sector stakeholders from across industries, through the Sustainable Markets Initiative, to work on a specific urban resilience challenge. The ultimate aim is to develop solutions that can be implemented locally to effectively empower cities to build a safe, equitable, and sustainable future for all.

This year the Fellows will broadly focus on how insurance can derisk investment to reduce the cost of capital required to build adaptive infrastructure, and how innovative parametric insurance can be coupled with other tools to manage the increasingly severe climate shocks already faced by cities.

Following implementation of Fellowship projects in the first cohort of cities (Surat, Melaka, The Hague, Glasgow and Greater Miami and Beaches) in 2022, it was clear that the model of building relationships and collaboration between private and public sector professionals unlocks shared understanding that can drive practical action toward greater city resilience.

The private sector, and more specifically the insurance market, is keenly aware of the mounting risks associated with the climate crisis. With the global urban population expected to double by 2050 cities, and their inhabitants, are at the forefront of the crisis. Through collective action, centered on targeted problem solving, the Fellowship harnesses the power of insurance and the wider private sector to deliver a more resilient future and co-create and finance solutions to the complex climate vulnerabilities faced by cities.

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