The Global Sustainable Insurance Summit, organized by the Insurance Association of Türkiye (TSB) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), during 13-14 November, as part of the COP31 Insurance House, highlighted the role of insurance in reducing climate risks, strengthening economic resilience and financing the sustainable transition. The Summit called for international cooperation to take action before disasters occur and safeguard insurability
As the impacts of climate change on economies, societies and ecosystems intensify, the global insurance industry gathered at the COP31 Insurance House,during 13-14 November, to develop collective solutions.
Held at the Insurance House during the 2026 UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Türkiye, the COP31 Global Sustainable Insurance Summit served as the flagship UN-convened, insurance industry-led, multistakeholder gathering at COP31.
Convened jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Insurance Association of Türkiye (TSB), the Summit brought together leaders and decision-makers from the insurance industry and wider financial sector, businesses, policymakers, regulators and supervisors, UN agencies, academia and civil society.
It examined how the insurance industry can work together with the public and private sectors to drive greater pre-disaster resilience by:Quantifying the value of avoided losses,Incentivizing upfront resilience measures and investments,Improving the insurability,bankability and investability of climate-vulnerable assets and businesses,Contributing to financial stability and macroeconomic resilience,Supporting the resilient and sustainable transition of communities and economies
The Summit’s opening session featured Butch Bacani, Head of Insurance at the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation, Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and Ricardo Lara, California Insurance Commissioner.
The gathering highlighted the insurance industry’s capacity to anticipate risks, prevent losses and steer investment towards resilience.
Acting together for climate resilience
In his opening address, TSB Secretary General Özgür Obalı emphasized that strengthening climate resilience is not the responsibility of any single sector or country and stressed the need for joint action by the public and private sectors. Obalı underscored the importance of bringing scientific knowledge, public policy, risk management and financial solutions together in a mutually reinforcing manner.
Addressing the role of disaster risk financing, early warning systems and climate data, as well as agricultural insurance, food security, the blue economy and nature-based solutions in building a sustainable future, Obalı stated that Türkiye’s experience in disaster risk management, agricultural insurance and public–private partnerships could make a significant contribution to international knowledge sharing.
Obalı announced that a signing ceremony marking TSB’s participation as a supporter of the PSI and FIT initiatives would be held on the second day of the Summit. He concluded his remarks by highlighting three key priorities: stronger climate risk data, investment in prevention and more inclusive financial protection.
Risk management capabilities must inform economic decisions
Butch Bacani, Head of Insurance at UNEP FI, stated that the global insurance industry bears a strategic responsibility in tackling climate change, strengthening economic resilience and accelerating the sustainable transition.
Bacani thanked TSB for its collaboration in establishing the Insurance House. He noted that the initiative, launched at COP30 in Brazil, was intended to become a permanent feature of every COP meeting.
Emphasizing that emissions reduction and climate change adaptation must be addressed together, Bacani warned that growing physical climate risks threaten access to insurance and its affordability. Noting that insurability is becoming an increasingly decisive condition for lending and investment, he said that the insurance industry’s risk management capabilities must be integrated into decision-making across banking, investment, public policy and the real economy.
Bacani stressed the importance of cooperation among insurers, banks and microfinance institutions in protecting micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, particularly in developing countries.
He explained that UNEP Finance Initiative’s (UNEP FI’s) work in eight countries across Asia-Pacific and Africa aims to bring the insurance industry’s risk-modelling capabilities into financing processes and scale up solutions that support climate resilience.
Noting that climate change and nature loss are mutually reinforcing risks, Bacani said that healthy ecosystems reduce disaster risks and strengthen the resilience and insurability of communities. He also outlined UNEP FI’s work to incorporate climate- and nature-related risks into insurers’ risk assessment and underwriting processes.
Bacani further noted that Forum for Insurance Transition(FIT) is strengthening collaboration among insurers, regulators, academia and civil society, and stressed the importance of aligning the industry’s underwriting and investment activities around a shared sustainability strategy.
Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and one of the architects of the Paris Agreement, emphasized that the insurance industry should take the lead in helping stakeholders understand the true scale of climate risks through its data, risk models and forward-looking insights.
Stating that the insurance industry must be a voice of truth on climate risks, Tubiana called on the sector to strengthen its role in alerting decision-makers and guiding economic choices towards a more resilient future.
Tubiana highlighted the importance of a system in which those who reduce risks are rewarded, while those who increase risks bear the associated costs. She said that insurance premiums should be structured to incentivize climate adaptation and resilience investments, and that premium discounts for risk-reduction measures must be substantial enough to bring about genuine behavioural change.
Emphasizing that insurance must be part of the solution before disasters strike, Tubiana called for more effective use of the industry’s risk management capabilities in national climate policies, development plans and infrastructure investments. She summed up her message to the industry with the words: “Make your voice heard more strongly.”
Insurers must tell the truth about climate and nature risks
Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, also drew attention to the responsibility the insurance industry can assume in addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. Stating that insurers have a role to play in preventing risks and enhancing resilience, Schomaker said that the sector must help society confront the realities of the risks it may face in the future.
Schomaker observed that people can be reluctant to discuss future risks and that the insurance industry can provide a realistic and powerful voice in this regard. Stressing the imperative to reduce risks and adapt to changing conditions, she highlighted the sector’s crucial role in pricing and insuring future risks.
Describing insurance as indispensable to the global economy, Schomaker pointed out that a global economy without insurance would not be possible. She said that insurers must explain that resilience cannot be achieved if society turns away from reality, and that they should reinforce this message through their pricing policies. She stressed the importance of rewarding practices that reduce risk and enhance resilience through incentives such as premium discounts.
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara shared the outcomes of the Sustainable Insurance Roadmap, launched by the California Department of Insurance in collaboration with UNEP in 2022 and completed after four years of work.
Lara explained that the roadmap aims to manage climate risks, enhance resilience, safeguard insurability and develop innovative insurance solutions. In this context, he reported that insurers are now required to prepare long-term climate risk and solvency plans covering the 2030, 2040 and 2050 horizons, and that climate scenario analysis and risk disclosures have been strengthened.
Lara also discussed regulations designed to encourage the strengthening of homes and communities against climate risks, noting that measures providing premium discounts to policyholders who take risk-reduction action have been introduced. He added that a new implementation framework for parametric insurance had been established and that work had begun on the links between nature, biodiversity and insurance.
Lara said that the newly developed Insurable Communities Framework is based on the capacities to anticipate future risks, adapt by reducing vulnerabilities before losses occur, and develop innovative solutions to close protection gaps. He emphasized that safeguarding insurability is a matter of resilience requiring the collective contribution of public institutions, the private sector, investors, researchers and communities.
TSB to strengthen its sustainability cooperation through signing ceremony
On the second day of the Summit, a signing ceremony was held under the theme “Sustainability Leadership of the Turkish Insurance Industry” to mark TSB becoming a supporter of the UNEP Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI) and the Forum for Insurance Transition (FIT).
The ceremony will be attended by TSB President Ahmet Yaşar; TSB Secretary General Özgür Obalı; Butch Bacani, Head of Insurance at UNEP FI; and Amita Chaudhury, Chair of the PSI Board and Group Head of Sustainability at AIA.
TSB’s participation as a supporter of these initiatives will mark an important step towards strengthening the Turkish insurance industry’s international cooperation on sustainable insurance. The dialogue established at the COP31 Insurance House will provide a foundation for joint efforts to improve understanding of climate risks, advance preventive investments and expand access to financial protection.