How can the insurance sector better prepare for climate risks?

Due to the increasing risks and impact of climate change, insurance companies are being forced to adapt to the new dangers posed by our environment. While climate change is not a recent phenomenon, insurers must proactively understand how extreme environmental and climate conditions can impact their operations.

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According to McKinsey, Hurricane Harvey alone caused $125 billion in economic damage in 2017. A study conducted by a US-based insurance company estimated the economic losses from natural disasters to be at $343 billion and insurance losses at $130 billion globally in 2021.

Large-scale disasters like hurricanes and wildfires are capable of completely destroying an entire community or town. These events can threaten the insurance industry’s business model, making insurance for certain risks unaffordable for customers or unfeasible for insurers.

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A report by Swiss Re states that property losses from natural disasters due to climate change could increase more than 60% by 2040. This can seriously impose a heavy burden on the insurance sector. With the escalation of risks due to climate change on the insurance industry, insurers have to start addressing the impact on their underwriting, pricing, and investment decisions.

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To help them with better decision-making, insurance companies can now access environmental and climate data and create suitable plans for their consumers.

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How can the insurers leverage climate and environmental data?

Environmental and climate datasets, like air quality, weather, carbon emissions, and forest fire, can help companies understand the various environmental conditions in the area where they operate. This data can provide invaluable insights into the health of the environment and can be used to make critical decisions about policies, coverage, and risk management related to climate change insurance.

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Learn how environmental data can give insurance companies an edge over climate change.

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The insurance sector can use data to:

• Create disaster management plans: With actionable data, insurers can understand where to set their coverage limits and decide which properties may be at higher risk. Additionally, they can use data to help develop and refine their disaster response plans. This can help them better manage costs and ensure their customers are appropriately priced for their risk levels.

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• Understand long-term trends: By adding historical datasets to the current environmental data, insurance companies can get an understanding of the long-term climate trends in the areas and make better decisions about the risks and coverage.

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• Anticipate and forecast risks: Climate models can provide further insight into how climate change is likely to affect the environment in the future, allowing insurers to better anticipate potential risks. Insurance companies can also leverage big data analytics to gain an even deeper understanding of the environment. Big data analytics can help analyze large amounts of data to gain insights into identifying and forecasting risks.

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• Create tailored insurance plans: The more granular environmental data is, the better it is for insurance companies. Utilizing these datasets, insurers can develop new products, services, and insurance plans exclusively tailored to the environmental conditions of their customers and provide maximum value. For example, some companies offer insurance policies tailored specifically for people who live in areas prone to certain natural disasters. This helps ensure that people in vulnerable areas are better protected from the elements and can get the financial help they need in the event of a disaster.

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How is Ambee’s climate and environmental data different?

At Ambee, we utilize a multimodal approach to gathering data from various on-ground sources, satellite imagery, and open-source data. This combination of datasets is then run through proprietary AI and ML models to generate the most accurate results. Our proprietary models measure, process, and analyze data from over a dozen sources, processing many terabytes of data every day.

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Ambee provides reliable and actionable environmental and climate data to companies globally. With our ever-evolving technology, we aim to help insurers achieve their targets and provide better value to their customers.

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To learn more about how we can help your company, get in touch.

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Summing it up

As natural disasters and other environmental events continue to threaten lives and properties, insurance companies are looking for ways to better prepare for and respond to these events. Environmental data can be a powerful tool for insurance companies. Using this data, they can better protect their customers and manage their costs, as well as develop new products and services that are tailored to the environmental risks of specific areas.

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In the future, we expect to see more companies taking advantage of this data to provide better coverage and service to their customers in times of climate change. Learn more about how Ambee’s data can be useful for your industry.