31 March 2021
Louise Pryor, President-Elect asks you to take part.
The IFoA recently issued a policy statement on climate risk, committing to playing our part in managing one of the greatest risks facing the world today.
We know that society faces immense challenges both in adapting to climate change and in transitioning to a low-carbon economy in order to limit its extent. In its public interest role, the profession will be increasingly accountable to a wide group of stakeholders. As actuaries, we need to demonstrate to our clients and to regulators, and to those who may challenge whether we are moving fast enough, that we are playing our part in the transition to a low-carbon economy. The IFoA’s commitment to the Green Finance Education Charter last year is an early step on that journey.
But in order to support our members and organisations through the challenges and opportunities presented by this situation, we need information – including the difficulties actuaries are facing, as well as examples of innovation and good practice.
Many actuaries and organisations are already intensely involved in managing climate-related risks, including physical, transition and cross-cutting financial risks. We want to understand what actuaries are doing in this crucial area, and to share, across the profession, examples of good practice to help accelerate the growth in our collective climate competencies. We also want to understand how climate risk impacts the day-to-day work of our members – the 2017 IFoA Risk Alert called on actuaries to consider how it affects the decisions and advice they are providing.
We have therefore begun an information-gathering exercise, and we’d like you to take part. The IFoA Review Team is looking at the involvement of actuaries across all practice areas in the treatment and assessment of climate-related risk and warmly invites organisations and individual actuaries to take part.
Senior Review Actuary, David Gordon, said:
“The results of the exercise will help us to understand better how actuaries treat climate risk across insurers, pension funds and other financial institutions, and to identify what work is being carried out in practice. This is your chance to contribute to a broad picture of how our profession is responding to this significant challenge, but also a major opportunity, facing actuaries over the coming decades.
We will publish a report of the findings later in the year, giving an up-to-date picture of actuarial work in this critical area and identifying where more focus may be needed.”
How to take part
If you would like to take part, either as an individual or on behalf of your organisation, please visit the current and planned reviews page or contact the Review Team for more information (reviews@actuaries.org.uk).