Advancing adaptation through climate information services
Global survey on the information requirements of the financial sector
This study focuses on the climate information requirements of the financial and insurance sector as part of their and their customers’ adaptation strategies to climate change. The evidence comes from sixty financial service providers, through a survey conducted by the UNEP Finance Initiative and the Sustainable Business Institute (SBI), Germany. Insurers, banks, asset managers, and other stakeholders in the financial sector will need more and better climate information in future. They play an important role as partners in developing such systems, generating data, and interpreting and using the information. Their cooperation is needed when it comes to financing innovative solutions for climate protection, managing the consequences of climate change, and financing the adaptation to climate change.
To be able to manage climatic risks affecting their business portfolios, financial institutions need
information – in the form of predictions, analyses, and interpretation – that is relevant for their
decisions. Some main findings of this survey are as follows:
- The majority of the survey participants expects that both direct as well as indirect risks related to
climate change will increase and will be more relevant in the future for the financial sector. - Climate change predictions for the local and regional level and the time horizon of the next 10 to 30
years are not available or reliable enough for many purposes of the financial sector and the available
information is not in a user-friendly state. - The highest importance regarding the significance of information is attached to the category “advice
on reliability of predictions” (around 80% of the participants).
Source: Source: UNEP