• Achim Steiner
    "Combining private sector financial flows and smart public policy will be a key to a low carbon, resource efficient 21st century Green Economy."
     
    Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director
  • Gordon Brown
    "By kick-starting this engagement on issues of systemic risk and financial sustainability with the United Nations community, my hope is to contribute to defining the new kind of thinking and action that we must embrace to address the challenges of a global economy when climate change, resource scarcity, commodity price volatility and income inequality, amongst other ongoing concerns, will set the future context for our finance sector and global capital markets."
     
    Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister
  • Mary Robinson
    "The UN framework affirms that all businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights and that all must be able to demonstrate that they are meeting this responsibility through due diligence and positive actions irrespective of local contexts and government capacities. Many companies still have a great deal of work to do to make human rights due diligence part of their operations and to ensure that at minimum, their actions do not undermine respect for rights and indeed contribute to realizing rights in people’s lives."
     
    Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland
  • Barbara Krumsiek
    "I look forward to welcoming key stakeholders from around the world to Washington, D.C. for the UNEP FI Global Roundtable. My hope is that the event will build the critical partnerships that are necessary to move the sustainable development agenda forward."
     
    Barbara J. Krumsiek, Calvert Investments President and CEO, UNEP Finance Initiative Co-Chair
  • Kai Buntrock
    “I expect a truly catalytic reaction as to the felt and understood necessity of policy makers for placing the discussion on a sustainable policy framework - targeting the future private sector mobilisation and involvement - centre stage!”
     
    Kai Buntrock, Senior Investment Manager, DEG
  • Yvo de Boer
    “I hope the UNEP FI conference will explore best practice in ESG-investing, particularly in the US where we see new levels of interest from mainstream investors. The step change for companies is recognizing that investors have a valid interest in understanding how these issues are being managed across multiple asset classes.”
     
    Yvo de Boer, KPMG’s Special Global Advisor on Climate Change and Sustainability
  • Ernst Rauch
    "Munich Re is particularly looking forward to the expert workshop on climate information services for financial institutions at the UNEP FI’s Global Roundtable 2011. We appreciate the establishment and work of climate information centres, as reinsurance companies would benefit from the broader financial services and insurance sector. This would enhance the overall resilience of the entire sector in light of climate change impacts."
     
    Ernst Rauch, Head of Climate Change Centre, Munich Re
  • Nassim Taleb
    "Owing to [...] misunderstanding of the causal chains between policy and actions, we can easily trigger Black Swans thanks to aggressive ignorance - like a child playing with a chemistry kit."
     
    Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan

Insuring responsibility: Managing ESG risks

Related Material

 

 

Session Summary

 

Download here

  

 

 

Synopsis
 
Globalization now means that the general public expects businesses to behave responsibly and be accountable for their actions, such as minimizing their environmental and social footprint. While this footprint is relatively small for the insurance industry, due to the nature of its operations, headline risk has nonetheless increased. Through its core financial services, the insurance industry is involved in some activities that lead to ESG risks and challenges.

Speakers:
Robert Detlefsen
Rowan Douglas
Jean-Noël Guye
Britta Rendlen
James Hutchin (Moderator)