ABOUT THE CLIMATE AND CATASTROPHIC EVENTS WORKING PARTY

Formation and Development

The formation of the Working Party - by the name of the Climate Change Working Party - under the Chairmanship of Tim Hardy was approved by the AIDA Presidential Council at their meeting in Lisbon on 11 November 2010. Prof Marco Frigessi was later appointed as Vice Chairman.

This followed the interest generated by the responses given by National Sections to the "Climate Change and Insurance Law" Questionnaire devised by Prof Marcel Fontaine as one of the main themes at the XIII AIDA World Congress held in Paris in May 2010 and by the presentations delivered there.
Attached are two files:

1. File 1
2. File 2

containing copies of the 21 National Reports delivered to Prof Fontaine, together with one supplementary report from Germany delivered by Claudia Föllmer. (Two further reports delivered from Argentina by Rosanna Bril and Maria Kavanagh respectively are to be found in the collection of reports described immediately below.)

Also attached are copies of and/or follow-up reports based upon most of the presentations delivered during the "Climate Change and Insurance Law" Theme session conducted in Paris at the XIII World Congress on 20 May 2010.

In late 2016 it was decided that the title of the Working Party should be extended to its present name. The concentration upon the impact of Climate Change remains as marked as ever. What the Working Party will continue to do in addition is to consider all types of climactic change and responses to catastrophic events regardless of cause to help inform how the insurance markets and law must evolve to serve all mitigation, adaptation and risk management and transfer concerns.

General Report

Attached is the Climate Change General Report prepared by Prof Marcel Fontaine.

Also attached is the form of presentation delivered by Tim Hardy to three branches of the Australian Insurance Law Association in January/February 2011 to mark the publication of the General Report and the formation of the AIDA Climate Change Working Party. The principal conclusions drawn by the General Report are identified and certain issues discussed and elaborated upon. A similar presentation was also delivered in Singapore on 18 January 2011 on the occasion of the 1st Climate Change Summit for Asia's Insurance Industry staged jointly by Asia Insurance Review and the Geneva Association.  

Purpose

Naturally the emphasis and greatest value of the WP's work is expected to be directed upon the insurance (including reinsurance and other risk transfer methods) and the legal implications of the phenomenon of Climate Change,climactic changes and catastrophic events of all kinds across jurisdictions

Literature on Climate Change is more than abundant. Much has already been written on the various impacts of climate change on the insurance sector, but much less on the legal aspects.

Our purpose is to go beyond a mere description of initiatives taken by the insurance sector, to concentrate on their legal expression in clauses, general conditions or new types of policies, and on the new legal issues that have come up, or probably will in the foreseeable future, and how these evolve over time along with other catastrophic event responses.

Projected areas of study/session topics/reports

These will be selected over time according to their perceived significance or suitability for comparative study. Given the vast scope of the Climate Change phenomenon and its potential legal implications different work streams or sub-groups are expected to be formed to concentrate energies and to accelerate progress.  Some initial areas of importance which have already been identified include:

a. Analysis of reports on Climate Change (and insurance implications) generated by governments, industry, associations, research groups etc.
b. Identification/consideration of significance of legislation and other regulatory measures /protocols/ initiatives (at national, regional and international level) implemented to combat effects of Climate Change.
c. Evolution of Climate Change litigation in the US and elsewhere.
d. Impact of Climate Change upon traditional lines of insurance and reinsurance (and legal issues arising).
e. Creation/development of new lines/types of (re)insurance and other products (and legal issues arising) and classification of certain existing products (such as weather derivatives) in the insurance/financial markets.
f. Special interest topics: i) Carbon Capture & Sequestration/Storage; ii) Use of cat bonds/ART for weather/carbon market risks etc; and iii) Large-scale natural hazard/pollution liability issues.
g. Significance of climatic changes of all kinds and responses to catastrophic events of all kinds.