Climate Change and Resource Depletion: The Challenges for Actuaries

Document description

Climate change and resource depletion are likely to result in unprecedented changes to the economic and social environment in which actuaries work.  Whilst there is a mass of scientific and more general literature, the financial implications have received less attention.  This review - the first in an ongoing series - aims to provide actuaries with summaries of papers relevant to their work and the significant risk management challenges they pose.  The review considers a series of risks that could affect the assets, liaibilities and solvency of the world's financial institutions.  Not only are there challenges; there are opportunities for actuaries.  Our training in model building, interpreting stochastic model output, managing uncertainty and risk, in understanding the long term nature of assets and liabilities, the inter-generational transfer of wealth through the discount rate mechanism and deep understanding of insurance put us in an ideal position to contribute to the global policy debate.