Geneva Association Task Force: New Insights on Climate Risk Assessment and Regulatory Practices

Since the launch of the TCFD recommendations in 2017, there have been significant regulatory developments relating to how firms assess and disclose the impacts of climate change on their business models.

In 2020, The Geneva Association (GA), a platform of 80+ CEOs of the largest insurance and reinsurance companies, launched its Task Force on Climate Change Risk Assessment, aiming to develop and promote holistic methodologies for conducting climate risk assessment. Although these reports are primarily aimed towards re/insurers, the findings are relevant to all financial firms dealing with the regulatory impacts of climate change.

This panel will discuss the outcomes of the recent third report of the GA Task Force. From a collaboration across 16 financial services regulatory and standard-setting bodies, this report brings new insights about regulatory priorities for forward-looking climate risk assessment and scenario analysis, including:

The evolution of regulatory objectives and approaches along with the implications for climate risk assessment and disclosure efforts;

Strategic guidance for board and executive management of the financial institutions on how to anchor climate risk assessment in core business decision-making;

How intra- and inter-sectoral collaboration encourages the convergence of best practices and establishes meaningful baselines for cross-company comparison.

Speakers

Jo Paisley (Moderator)

President, GARP Risk Institute

Jo has worked on a variety of risk areas at GRI, including stress testing, operational resilience, model risk management and climate risk. Her career prior to joining GARP spanned public and private sectors, including working as the Director of the Supervisory Risk Specialist Division within the Prudential Regulation Authority and as Global Head of Stress Testing at HSBC.

Maryam Golnaraghi

Director of Climate Change and Environment, The Geneva Association

Since 2015, Maryam is the Director of Climate Change and Environment at The Geneva Association, the strategic international think tank of the insurance industry, whose members are CEOs of 90 largest insurance and reinsurance companies, globally. Working with the boards and C-Suite, financial services’ regulatory and standard setting bodies, technologists, governments and policy makers, and a number of multi-lateral partners, she leads strategic initiatives to innovate and scale up insurance industry’s contributions as risk managers and investors to transitioning to a resilient low-carbon economy.

From 2004 to 2014, she served as the Chief of Disaster Risk Reduction at the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization. From 1997 to 2004, Maryam founded and served as the CEO of Climate Risk Solutions Inc., a first-of-its-kind climate risk assessment and advisory firm that delivered innovative climate-risk assessment and risk management solutions to companies in the energy, agriculture and financial sectors and the U.S. government.

She holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University, an MS in Applied Physics & a PhD in Physical Oceanography from Harvard University. She served as a senior research fellow at the Harvard Business School.

Ben Carr

Analytics and Capital Modelling Director, Aviva

Ben Carr leads the multi-disciplinary project team at Aviva working on the development of scenario analysis to support the development of disclosures consistent with the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate Related Financial Disclosures. He is also a member of the joint PRA-FCA Climate Financial Risk Forum Scenario Analysis Working Group. Ben works in the Group Actuarial Function at Aviva, where he is responsible for the maintenance and development of their approved group-wide Solvency II internal economic capital model.

He joined Aviva from the Prudential Regulation Authority at the Bank of England in 2011, where he led the UK Internal Model Approval Process (IMAP) in preparation for the implementation of Solvency II. Before that, he worked at the Insurance and Pensions Unit at the European Commission, where he was heavily involved in the drafting and negotiation of the Solvency II Framework Directive as well 3rd country dialogues with other major insurance markets including the US, Japan, Switzerland and Bermuda. Ben Carr holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Warwick.

Michele Lacroix

Group Head of Sustainability, SCOR

Michèle Lacroix joined SCOR Global Investments in 2008 as Chief Investment Officer before becoming Chief Operating Officer. She moved in 2014 as Head of Group Investment Office at SCOR then Head of Group Investment Risk & Sustainability in 2019, monitoring SCOR’s investment portfolios risks and designing the sustainable investment strategy.

She was promoted Group Head of Sustainability in early 2022 with the mandate to embed sustainability across the company, from our People to insurance, investments, and operations. She is member of the Climate and Sustainable Finance Commission at the Autorité des Marchés Financiers.

Sebastien Fischer

Group Risk Management Executive, Allianz SE

Sebastian manages a multi-year project at Allianz dealing with development and implementation of qualitative and quantitative climate change risk assessment methods and tools, as well as their application in risk management. He leads the Center of Competence for ESG risk with a focus on the integration of ESG risk considerations into risk management and risk reporting across the Allianz group.

Prior to this role Sebastian was a Coverage Officer in Group Risk, working at the interface to Allianz CROs in Asia, Greece, Ireland, and Switzerland. He holds a PhD in Physics from Technische Universität Munich as well as an Executive Master of Insurance from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich.