Climate change

As a global leader in risk management, our global Climate Initiative focuses on developing products and services that address the evolving risks associated with climate change, as well as the establishment of a long-range carbon management strategy. Although our businesses around the world have already been addressing customer needs and expectations in the area of climate-related risk, this initiative enables us to take a more consistent and focused approach. It has three elements:

Climate Change Office

Our internal Climate Office energizes our 60,000 employees and helps develop risk products and solutions. The Climate Office is embedded in our underwriting infrastructure.

Climate Change Advisory Office

Our Climate Change Advisory Council, consisting of internal functional leaders and external experts, reports to Zurich’s Group Management and advises us on strategic and operational issues associated with climate change. Its first two external members are former US Congressman Sherwood Boehlert, an environmental champion who serves on the board of Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection, and Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, former Dean of the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) and a former member of the German Bundestag.

Research and collaboration

An applied research program with organizations and institutions to examine the critical economic, finance and policy issues associated with climate change.

As the first collaboration in this third element, Zurich will fund a distinguished visitors program at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UCSB.

This fresh impetus builds on practices and policies already established in our organization addressing elements of climate-related risk.

Environmental policy