Climate change and Business risk the pioneering project of the Unipol Group

9 April 2020

Online teaching for BBS participants continues, between lessons and meetings with professionals in virtual mode. Among the latest appointments, the speech by Marjorie Breyton of the Sustainability office of Unipol Group , for the participants of the Global MBA in Green Energy and Sustainable Businesses.

Graduated in political science from the Lyon Institute of Political Studies, Marjorie Breyton specialized in human rights and gained numerous experiences in international NGOs, at the offices of the European Commission and the UN, before joining Unipol in 2016, the second largest insurance group in the Italian market, among the top ten in Europe.

“Thanks to his intervention, we had confirmation of how environmental issues are a need, and not an option, for today’s business, and how they occupy a fundamental place in the strategies of the companies” - tells us Elisa Flamini, participant of the BBS Global MBA.

“Natural disasters and climate change - continues Elisa - represent in 2020 two of the most significant business risks in the world (and in Italy), to the point of occupying a considerable weight in the insurance world. The losses recorded on uninsured goods and services, deriving from the natural disasters of the global warming, are still significantly higher than the insured assets: and in the current situation, which attests to global warming greater than 2°C, the damages that would ensue are of a magnitude that does not allow to insure the world.

In the field of sustainability, the insurance expert is faced with an even greater challenge than simply offering products and services: in fact, he plays a fundamental role both as a risk manager and as an investor. On the one hand, this figure supports and facilitates the players in setting in motion mitigation actions, through concrete actions to prevent risks related to climate change and reduce any consequential damage; on the other, it involves the resources necessary to finance adaptation and resilience measures to climate change.

Unipol is certainly a pioneer, as demonstrated by the activation of the Life DERRIS project, the first European project that combines public administration, businesses and the insurance sector, to reduce the risks caused by extraordinary climatic events, while at the same time guiding the companies in the implementation of an action plan for adaptation to climate change”.

The project, which sees Unipol Group leader together with the partners Città di Torino, Cineas, Anci, Coordinazione Agende 21 and UnipolSai, focuses on the implementation of innovative forms of public and private partnership between the three areas, to foster a greater risk culture, make available the appropriate tools for the prevention and management of climate risks and study innovative financial tools to mobilize capital dedicated to risk reduction.

“The message is clear - concludes Elisa: in Climate Change, there is no longer a discussion on ‘if’ but on ‘when’: a company can choose to be passive, or to play in advance, leading the transformation of business and governance logics”.



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