The Swiss Re Group is a leading wholesale provider of reinsurance and insurance products. Swiss Re has clearly and repeatedly articulated its view of climate change as one of the biggest and costliest threats to society with the potential to affect every area of our lives. A frequent author of publications with a climate change focus such as “Mind the Risk, A Global Ranking of Cities under Threat from Natural Disasters”, Swiss Re continues to demonstrate its focus to mitigating climate change through a wide range of commitments.
In April 2015, Swiss Re became a signatory of the World Economic Forum’s CEO Climate Leadership Group which outlined 3 core commitments:
- “That the companies we represent are taking voluntary actions to reduce environmental and carbon footprints, setting targets to reduce our own GHG gas emissions and/or energy consumption while also collaborating in supply chains and at sectoral levels.”
- “We agree on the need for inspirational and meaningful global actions and aligned messaging. We will act as ambassadors for climate action, focusing on solutions and economic opportunities and using ‘the science debate is over: climate change is real and addressable’ as one of the common themes to raise public awareness.”
- “We will actively manage climate risks and incorporate them in decision making – not least to realise growth opportunities. We will take steps to implement effective strategies to strengthen not only our companies’ but also societal resilience.”
In addition Swiss Re is a member of a wide range of climate change focused bodies such as Climate Wise, the Climate Group, RE100, as well as the United Nations’ supported Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI) and Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). Finally Swiss Re is a member and promoter of, “RE100” which was launched at New York Climate Week in September 2014. RE100 is an ambitious campaign to encourage multinationals to commit to purchasing 100% renewable energy across their global operations by 2020. The campaign looks to encourage the sharing of best practice in decarbonising a business as well as promoting these steps to other global companies to reduce carbon outputs.