RIICE will contribute to reach the goal of the InsuResilience initiative to increase numbers of insured against climate risks

At the UN world climate conference in Morocco, the German Parliamentary State Secretary, Thomas Silberhorn, representing the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, announced the Joint Statement of the Initiative on Climate Risk Insurance “InsuResilience” supported by Canada, the United States of America, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the European Union.

The InsuResilience initiative reaffirms and supports the commitment made by the G7 at the Elmau summit in June 2015. Moreover, it reconfirms the intention to provide funding for climate risk insurance and for strengthening resilience to climate change in vulnerable countries.

InsuResilience expects a significant increase in the number of people with access to insurance against the negative impact of climate-related hazards. The Initiative will further work on mobilising additional funding from private sources. Currently, it is working to expand its activities to additional regions and countries and to develop new and more diverse climate insurance products.

During the German G7 presidency in 2015, the G7 states followed a proposal by the German Federal Government to launch the InsuResilience Initiative. The goal is up to additional 400 million poor and vulnerable people gaining insurance cover against climate risks by 2020.

In addition, 10 climate risk insurance facilities and other insurance-related initiatives are listed in the appendix of the Joint Statement. They are supported by InsuResilience in their implementation and exploration of climate risk insurance solutions for people in vulnerable countries. The Remote Sensing-based Information and Insurance for Crops in Emerging Economies (RIICE) project is one of the climate risk insurance initiatives mentioned in the Joint Statement of InsuResilience. Other facilities include the African Risk Capacity (ARC) and the Caribbean and Central American Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF).

Associated partners of the InsuResilience Initiative are the Insurance Development Forum, the World Bank and the World Food Programme.

Further information:

• http://www.bmz.de/en/press/aktuelleMeldungen/2016/november/161115_pm_098_Insurance-coverage-against-climate-risks-BMZ-supports-G7-initiative/index.html
• http://www.bmz.de/g7/includes/Downloadarchiv/G7_Joint_Statement_InsuResilience.pdf
• http://www.bmz.de/en/press/speeches/Mueller/2015/may/20150507_Opening-speech-by-Gerd-Mueller-at-the-G7-stakeholder-conference.html