Industry Task Force

Insurance Task Force

At the invitation of The former Prince of Wales, Lloyd’s has brought together leaders from a number of the largest and most influential global insurance firms to form an Insurance Task Force (ITF) as part of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, to drive progress as a group and accelerate the pace of industry transitions towards a more resilient and sustainable future, putting Nature, People and Planet at the heart of global value creation.

The ITF, chaired by Lloyd’s Chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown, has committed to supporting the global transition through delivering five key initiatives in 2021 that will provide innovative new insurance products and services, and critical financial and risk management support across a number of industries and geographies to drive positive change.

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    Latest news from the Insurance Task Force

    Joint Global Partnership Launched by the Sustainable Markets Initiative, Howden and Resilient Cities Network

    The partnership will address urban climate change vulnerabilities and explore how insurance can be incorporated into climate resilience solutions to support city resiliency

    Insurance professionals will be seconded into city leadership teams in Melaka, Surat, Miami, Glasgow and The Hague as the first cohort of the Global Risk and Resilience Fellowship gets underway

    Sustainable Markets Initiative Insurance Task Force (ITF) launches global pledge for sustainable supply chains

    A key feature of the insurance sector is its role as an ‘enabler’, providing services across the whole of the global economy, with every home and business reliant on a range of insurance products. As an industry, insurers are making progress with reducing the carbon footprint of their direct operations, incentivising customers to reduce environmental impact and supporting them through the transition.

    The ITF’s Global Supply Chain Pledge, led by Direct Line Group and AXA XL aims to drive greater sustainability across insurance industry supply chains. 

    13 major insurers and brokers have signed the commitment to take action and support their supply chain partners to make the green transition. Signatories have made a commitment to take into account the emissions within their direct supply chain by focusing on three key actions:

    1. Encouraging and helping suppliers to set meaningful sustainability targets with an ultimate goal of adopting Paris-aligned Net Zero Targets: insurers and brokers will, during procurement processes and then through ongoing engagement with suppliers, encourage supplier firms to set meaningful sustainability targets with the ultimate goal of adopting Net Zero Targets – for example, a 50% reduction in global emissions by 2030 in advance of reaching Net Zero by no later than 2050.

    2. Advance initiatives with a goal of measuring the carbon footprint of insurance supply chains and report transparently on progress: to support more sustainable supply chains, the sector will develop methodologies for assessing and measuring the carbon intensity of suppliers to identify hotspots. Once established, these methodologies will be used to identify suppliers that have lower footprints or those who are taking active steps to increase sustainability.

    3. Work to tackle supply chain carbon hotspots: signatories are committed to promoting engagement across the sector to address parts of the supply chain with the largest carbon footprint and facilitate best practices to drive up sustainability. This will allow insurers to replicate and build on the stewardship approaches adopted by investors and drive change in the supply chain at a sectoral level, rather than only on a case-by-case basis.

    Download the best practice guidelines

    Download the pledge

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    The 13 organisations who have signed the Pledge are:

    1. Association of British Insurers

    2. Aon

    3. Ascot

    4. Axa XL

    5. AXIS Capital

    6. Conduit Re

    7. Direct Line Group

    8. Howden Group

    9. Legal and General

    10. Lloyd’s

    11. McGill and Partners

    12. Phoenix Group

    13. Tokio Marine Kiln

    Disaster Resilience Framework for climate-vulnerable countries

    Download the Disaster Resilience Framework

    The ITF have launched a Disaster Resilience Framework for Climate-Vulnerable Countries. This framework aims to demonstrate the opportunity that exists to blend public and private investment with insurance that could reengineer and drastically improve disaster resilience in low- to middle-income countries who are most at risk from climate-exacerbated extreme weather events. It highlights the unique potential there is for multilateral development banks, international aid donor and the private sector to partner to create large scale, repeatable, efficient and high impact physical, economic and humanitarian financing and risk mitigation solutions for climate-vulnerable developing countries.

    Sustainable Products and Services Showcase

    Download the full Sustainable Products and Services Showcase

    The ITF have published a Sustainable Products and Services Showcase, presenting the wide-ranging innovative insurance solutions currently available to customers to develop, invest in and scale their sustainability initiatives, supporting green innovation across multiple sectors and geographies. It shows the critical role the global insurance industry is already playing in underpinning and safeguarding the efforts of multiple industries as they drive climate-positive action to adapt and transition to a sustainable future and comes as action from one of the five commitments the ITF signed up to deliver throughout 2021.

    The insurance industry is exceptionally well placed to understand the impact of climate change and the damage it can cause to us all if we don’t take action now. This is why I am so pleased that a large number of the world’s leading insurance companies have joined together to identify how the insurance industry can help put Nature, People and the Planet at the heart of our entire economy.

    The former Prince of Wales
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    HRH at the G7 Summit

    Membership composition

    The ITF is chaired by Bruce Carnegie-Brown, Lloyd’s Chairman, and championed by John Neal, Lloyd’s Chief Executive Officer. Its members are drawn from across the global insurance industry, including:

    Peter Zaffino

    Chairman and CEO, AIG

    Oliver Bate

    CEO, Allianz

    Scott Purviance

    CEO, Amwins

    Dominic Christian

    Global Chairman, Aon Reinsurance Solutions

    Andrew Brooks

    CEO, Ascot

    Sean McGovern

    CEO UK & Lloyd’s, AXA XL

    Albert Benchimol

    CEO, AXIS Capital Holdings

    Adrian Cox

    CEO, Beazley

    Neil Eckert

    Executive Chairman, Conduit Re

    Penny James

    CEO, Direct Line Group

    Aki Hussain

    CEO, Hiscox

    David Howden

    CEO, Howden

    Ekhosuehi Iyahen

    Secretary General, Insurance Development Forum

    Nigel Wilson

    CEO, Legal & General

    John Neal

    CEO, Lloyd’s

    John Doyle

    President and CEO, Marsh McLennan

    Joachim Wenning

    CEO, Munich Re

    Andy Briggs

    CEO, Phoenix

    Brad Irick

    CEO, Tokio Marine Kiln

    Carl Hess

    CEO, Willis Towers Watson

    Steve McGill

    CEO, McGill and Partners

    As the world begins to recover from a pandemic that has caused significant and far-reaching financial and societal challenges, it does so with an opportunity to build back with sustainability as a foundation and guiding principle. Although climate change poses unprecedented systemic risk, it is one which – through partnership and accelerated action – we have the means to address. As a task force, we are making a resolute commitment to be a catalyst for action to help create a more sustainable future through the risks we manage and the capital we invest.

    Bruce Carnegie-Brown, Lloyd's Chairman
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    Portrait of Bruce Carnegie Brown, Lloyds Chairman

    Further information

    For roundtable and Task Force enquiries please contact:

    Email: info@sustainable-markets.org