The United Nations-convened Sustainable Insurance Forum (SIF) has announced the establishment of a formal strategic partnership with the International Actuarial Association (IAA), which has more than 70 member associations worldwide.
Actuaries are skilled professionals who play the essential role of analyzing the financial impacts of risk for organizations like insurers; pensions funds government agencies; and more. Governed by rigorous code of professional conduct, they apply their mathematical expertise and judgment to forecast and minimize financial uncertainty.
The Sustainable Insurance Forum (SIF) was established by the UN with the support of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS). It is now a global network of 31 insurance supervisors and regulators working together to strengthen responses to sustainability and climate change challenges facing the insurance sector.
Both SIF and IAA have an international focus and share the same goals regarding the reporting and disclosure of climate-related risks including better information and improved modeling of climate-related risks over short and long-time horizons.
Both organisations also aim to protect policyholders, develop better understanding of risk mitigation and adaptation methods, and provide maintenance of viable products and markets while minimizing protection gaps.
The new partnership will see the UN-convened SIF working with the IAA to provide educational opportunities and strengthen responses to sustainability and climate change challenges facing the insurance sector. SIF’s work programme for 2021-2023 includes a workstream on embedding ‘Climate risks in actuarial processes’.
Key elements of the SIF-IAA programme of work include:
- Support the development of a wider awareness of the potential impacts of climate-related risks on financial risk management, reporting and disclosure;
- Support the development of the actuarial profession’s skill sets and capabilities to assist third parties in managing and mitigating climate-related risks; and
- Highlight the potential contribution of actuaries as climate-related risk experts as support to companies and regulators.