DUAL UK has launched its Climate Risk & Resilience (CR&R) underwriting team, introducing a series of insurance products aimed at supporting businesses in addressing decarbonisation and sustainability challenges.
The team will be led by Rob Best, who has four decades of experience in the London insurance market, having built teams at JLT, Gallagher, and Willis. He will be joined by David Sparrow, former CEO of Built Asset Consultancy EC Harris and a former member of the Global Management Committee at Environmental Consultancy Arcadis.
The underwriting team includes Simon White, Rikke Olesen, Samantha Walters, and Chris Gwynn, who bring experience from insurers and managing general agents (MGAs) such as AIG, AXA XL, Chubb, and CLS RS. Collectively, they have expertise in environmental, public law, and rights of light underwriting.
Simon McGinn (pictured above), CEO of DUAL UK, said the launch of the Climate Risk & Resilience team demonstrates how insurance can support risk capital to drive economic growth, highlighting specialty underwriting as a core strength of MGAs.
In recent years, the UK insurance industry has made notable strides toward achieving net-zero emissions, introducing initiatives and products aimed at supporting decarbonisation efforts.
Notably, AXA, one of the world’s largest insurers, has set ambitious goals to reduce the carbon intensity of its personal motor portfolios by 20% by 2030, compared to 2019 levels.
The insurer also aims to decrease absolute carbon emissions of its largest insurance clients by 30% and the carbon intensity of other corporate clients by 20% by 2030, using 2021 as the baseline.
Meanwhile, the NGO Reclaim Finance urged Lloyd's of London to cease support for fossil fuel expansion and implement binding rules to prohibit insurers from underwriting such projects. This highlights the ongoing pressure on insurers to align their underwriting practices with net-zero commitments.
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