Fifth Annual Volatility and Risk Institute Conference
Insurance and Rising Climate-Related Risks
Fifth Annual Volatility and Risk Institute Conference
Insurance and Rising Climate-Related Risks
Friday, April 26, 2024
The Volatility and Risk Institute held its annual conference on Friday, April 26, 2024. The topic was "Insurance and Rising Climate-Related Risks."
Please find the conference agenda below. Videos of the conference sessions are linked below.
Agenda
7:45am: Registration opens
8:15am: Introduction Robert Engle, NYU Stern, and Richard Berner, NYU Stern (video)
8:30am: Steven Rothstein, Managing Director, Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets - Ceres Report: Climate Risk Management in the U.S. Insurance Sector (video) (slides)
9:00am: Fireside Chat with Adrienne Harris, Superintendent, New York State Department of Financial Services (moderated by Richard Berner) (video)
9:35am Executive Provider Panel (video)
- William Berkley, Executive Chairman, W.R. Berkley Corporation (moderator)
- Erin Collins, Senior Vice President, State and Policy Affairs, NAMIC
- Frances O'Brien, Chief Risk Officer, Chubb Group
- Matt Junge, Head of Property Underwriting US, Swiss Re
11:00am Break
11:15am: Paper Session I: Assessing the Gaps and Remedies for Them (moderated by Robert Engle)
- Parinitha Sastry, Columbia Business School - “When Insurers Exit: Climate Losses, Fragile Insurers, and Mortgage Markets” (co-authored with Ishita Sen, Ana-Maria Tenekedjieva) (video) (slides)
- Tuomas Tomunen, Boston College, Carroll School of Management - “Failure to Share Natural Disaster Risk" (video) (slides)
12:15pm: Lunch
1:00pm: Lunch Keynote: Maryam Golnaraghi, Director Climate Change & Environment, Geneva Association - “Managing risks of emerging climate tech to expedite industrial decarbonization: The powerful role of insurance” (video) (slides)
1:30pm: Paper Session II (moderated by Richard Berner)
- Shan Ge, NYU Stern - “Measuring the Climate Risk Exposure of Insurers” (co-authored with Hyeyoon Jung, Robert Engle, Xuran Zeng) (video) (slides)
- Lawrence Powell, University of Alabama, Culverhouse College of Business - “Is the U.S. Insurance Industry Resilient to Climate Change? Insurer Capitalization and the Performance of State Guaranty Association” (co-authored with Kenny Wunder, Boyi Zhuang) (video) (slides)
2:30pm: Break
2:45pm: Fireside chat with Tammy Jones, CEO & Co-Founder, Basis Investment Group - Implications for Real Estate (moderated by Sam Chandan, NYU Stern) (video)
3:15pm: Fireside chat with Nancy Wallace, UC Berkeley Haas (moderated by Robert Engle) (video)
4:00pm: Regulator Panel (video)
- Steven Seitz, Director of the Federal Insurance Office, U.S. Department of the Treasury (moderator)
- Alice Kane, Superintendent of Insurance, New Mexico
- Mike Kreidler, Commissioner of Insurance, Washington State (remote)
- Michael Peterson, Deputy Commissioner, Climate and Sustainability Branch, California Department of Insurance (remote)
5:15pm: Closing remarks
5:30pm: Wine & cheese reception
Conference Theme
Insurers have for centuries written policies that cover losses from storms, floods and fires. Indeed the modern concept of property insurance, to mutualize the risk of loss -- or spread it across the insured population -- followed the Great Fire of London, which in 1666 consumed more than 13,000 houses.
But in the face of intensifying losses, insurers are raising premiums, denying coverage or pulling out of markets. Is climate change responsible? Is this a case of market failure with misaligned incentives, or is the market appropriately sending a signal that activity must withdraw from high-risk venues? Consumers, insurers and their regulators need to understand whether and how climate change is affecting the insurance market, in terms of availability, pricing, take-up, and financial resilience of the insurance sector.
This conference will explore the growing gaps between the risks of climate change and the capacity of insurance and reinsurance to price and manage them. It brings together insurance providers, clients, regulators/policymakers and analysts to understand the gaps and discuss remedies to reduce them, including incentives to build resilience through adaptation and the appropriate role of government to backstop losses.
If you have any questions about the conference, please contact us at vri@stern.nyu.edu.