Climate Change Working Group to Date

Since its inception in January 2016 the Climate Change Working Group (CCWG) has worked hard to support the Institute's public policy position on climate change and promote actuaries' involvement in assessing the financial implications of climate change.

This article has two sections to it: reflections on the achievements for 2017, and presenting the revised mission statement for 2018 and the future. The purpose of this article is to update you, the members of the Actuaries Institute, of our work and to ask for feedback and assistance if you wish to become involved in understanding and managing this increasingly imminent risk. While our purpose is to support the members of the Actuaries Institute, our audience also includes regulators and government agencies, company directors and managers as well as financial institutions and asset owners.

What does the CCWG do?

We are aiming to achieve our mission by

• Collating existing research on climate change into areas of interest to the profession
• Help connect members to the latest policy and scientific research
• Stimulate research through education, collaboration and communication

What have the CCWG been doing throughout 2017?

• Supported the Institute's policy position through a press release welcoming APRA's focus on climate-related risks , a pre-budget submission on funding for natural disaster resilience and contributing to the global actuarial profession's response to TCFD .
• Assessed the feasibility of an Australian Actuaries Climate Index , which is now being produced by Finity and will be launched in 2018.
• Ran a Climate Risk Fluency Seminar in collaboration with scientists from CSIRO ESCC Hub & BoM.
• Organised a Climate Change Risks Insights session covering climate-related physical, transition and liability risk.
• Presented at the Actuaries Summit on Funding for Climate Change Adaption .
• Contributed to the 2018 Catastrophe Risk Seminar .
• Collaborated with scientists from the NESP ESCC in a YAP workshop on Climate Data and Insurance .

What will the CCWG do over 2018?

Our 2018 priorities are to increase participation in investment and wealth management issues relating to climate transition risk, continue leading the actuarial community on responses to the TCFD, and seek opportunities to collaborate with engineers on adaptation solutions.

Some really positive news is that we are growing quite steadily in terms of committee members. We are in close contact with the NZ institute and their CCWG. Further to this, we collaborate on a regular basis with the scientific and engineering community. We are excited about this year, where we believe that we will be much better connected with you, and the other committees of the institute.

How can you become more involved?

Although not traditionally involved in climate risks actuaries can still become involved and make a difference by:

• Identifying leading practice and presenting research and case studies
• Communicating risk: by converting climate risk to measurable financial outcomes, and what this means for business decisions
• Decision making under uncertainty: Frameworks and methodologies to make decisions, including case studies
• Quantifying long term financial implications, associated risks and uncertainties. This includes making rational financial and risk management decisions, as well as considering behavioural economics, with the aim of helping the decision maker decide how to deal with the problem and decide between the viable solutions
• Assisting companies in disclosing their climate risk exposures under relevant standards
• Researching funding strategies for adaption and assessing their efficiency and impact

Want to keep in touch?

• We kindly ask if anyone wishes to share feedback on our 2018 mission and/or our achievements please send them to David Leber who will be collating and sharing it with the committee.

We welcome members who actively contribute to the working group. If you are interested, please contact Stephanie Wong

This article was written by David Leber on behalf of all members of the CCWG.