Butch Bacani is the Head of Insurance at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and leads the UN Principles for Sustainable Insurance Initiative (PSI), the largest collaboration between the UN and the insurance industry. Endorsed by the UN Secretary-General and insurance industry CEOs, the PSI is a global framework and initiative for the industry to address sustainability issues—as risk managers, insurers and investors—and to build resilient, inclusive and sustainable communities and economies on a healthy planet.
Butch conceptualised sustainable insurance, net-zero insurance, nature-positive insurance, and insurance SDGs. He leads initiatives that contribute to achieving the Paris Climate Agreement, Global Biodiversity Framework, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These include creating and chairing the UN Forum for Insurance Transition to Net Zero (FIT), producing the first global environmental, social and governance guides for non-life and life & health insurance business, piloting the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) with the world’s leading insurers, conceptualising a Sustainable Insurance Facility with V20 finance ministers for the most climate-vulnerable countries, creating the PSI’s nature-positive insurance initiative, and aligning insurance portfolios with the SDGs. Butch co-led the creation of the UN Sustainable Insurance Forum for regulators and supervisors, worked with the California Insurance Commissioner to produce the world’s first sustainable insurance roadmap, and was a member of the Green Finance Task Force initiated by the People’s Bank of China and UNEP to establish China’s green financial system.
Butch initiated efforts that produced regional sustainable insurance roadmaps and strategies for the African and Latin American insurance markets, as well as at the national and state levels—from Brazil and Costa Rica, to California and Canada. He has authored pioneering studies on sustainable insurance and responsible investment; and was part of InsuranceERM’s inaugural list of the most influential people leading and shaping the insurance industry’s response to climate change.