Why sustainability and ESG are key insurance business issues
26-01-2021
20-07-2020
Addressing sustainability and ESG is not simply a matter of complying with the rules it’s essential for insurers’ survival, as panellists in a recent webinar held by global law firm DLA Piper discussed.
In the insurance industry, and in the wider financial and business communities, the concept of sustainability is evolving. Now insurers are looking at it not just from the perspective of how environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues impact insurance and investment portfolios, but also how insurance and investment portfolios impact the environment and society.
Kavinda Herath / Stuff
It s been a difficult 10 months for Gore couple Malcolm and Kerry Neilson getting their flood-damaged home livable again.
Gore flood victims Malcolm and Kerry Neilson say the support they gave each other helped them through the difficult times in 2020. The Neilsons are toasting in 2021 leaving behind the stress caused by the February floods, being unable to live in their home for eight months and coping with Covid-19 restrictions in cramped emergency housing. It doesn’t end there, within a week of the floods, Kerry underwent breast surgery and in July while removing gib board in her damaged home, she slipped and broke a wrist.
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The size of the hail that hit Timaru in a storm in November 2019, causing more than $170 million in damage.
Multi-million dollar insurance payouts for fires and a storm were big news in The Timaru Herald during November, writes Doug Sail in an ongoing review of 2020. The insurance bill for Timaru’s 2019 hailstorm reached $170.98m in November making it New Zealand’s costliest weather event this century. The Insurance Council of New Zealand’s (ICNZ) figures released a few days before the one-year anniversary of the storm, listed the hailstorm in the top five of the most expensive natural disasters since it began keeping records in 1968.
Source:Â Insurance Council of NZ
The Insurance Council of New Zealandâs preliminary annual figure for severe weather events reinforces the support provided to insurance customers, with insurers paying in excess of $202 million- in insured loses over the last 12 months.
Tim Grafton, Chief Executive of ICNZ, says insurers have been there when we needed them with approximately 12,000 claims paid to help their customers get back on their feet during the year.
âThe uncertainty 2020 delivered was magnified by the number of flood and other severe weather events right across the country. On top of this we had the Åhau fires and face a continued heightened risk of fires this summer.â