Howden Group has formed a climate risk and resilience division to drive climate action in the current volatile market. The international insurance group’s new segment will be responsible for risk transfer products that accelerate and de-risk the transition to a low-carbon economy, as well as mitigate the effects of climate change. It adds to the group’s existing specialist insurance brokerage, underwriting agency and digital analytics offering. The division will be led by Charlie Langdale, head of climate risk and resilience at Howden, who says: “We are helping to remove barriers to financing the projects that will help us move towards a low-carbon economy, whilst also creating scalable, sustainable markets for funding disaster response by unlocking private capital for social good.” David Howden, CEO of Howden Group, adds: “There has never been a more important moment for the insurance industry to prove its power as an enabler for change. The move to a low-carbon economy simply cannot happen without insurance.” “With the launch of this team, we are investing in the people and resources to help drive that change,” he continues. Earlier this year, Howden collaborated with Replexus and the Danish Red Cross to use a Guernsey-based insurance-linked securities (ILS) structure to form the world’s first humanitarian catastrophe bond covering pure volcanic eruption.
