As we approach the end of an intense but successful year, we owe a huge thank you for your incredible hard work across so many areas throughout 2021.
Dear members and friends,
In this note, we will take the opportunity to reflect on progress made by CCRI, which can only be described as a success made possible by the tireless energy of members, and key COP26 outcomes, before providing a more detailed report on advances made by individual working groups.
It was wonderful to meet some of you in person at COP26 in Glasgow and to see everyone’s immense individual and collective efforts come to fruition. Notably, COP26 saw CCRI “graduate” as a leading global initiative in the resilient investment space, which fills us with pride, but also the responsibility to meet the challenges presented by the next stages of delivery. We are working towards a number of important announcements to be shared with you in the New Year with regards to governance and overall ambition.
Significant progress and momentum was made to accelerate global action on resilience at COP26, with the UN calling for urgent efforts to increase resilience investment and implementation. It was equally encouraging to see CCRI given such a prominent platform, reinforcing the Coalition’s lead role in developing a systemic response to resilience and providing an invaluable opportunity to showcase the remarkable progress we have made in the last 18 months in advancing practical solutions at both the systemic and asset level. The reception and feedback CCRI received at COP26 associated with our progress and delivery could not have been better.
While COP21 in Paris is remembered for nation states gathering the political will to tackle global warming, Glasgow will be recognised for a seismic shift in the economic and financial attitudes towards investment in climate resilience.
Both public sector and private finance are beginning to demonstrate a view of investment in resilience as being a good investment, and the proper pricing of climate risk as an opportunity rather than a threat. Crucially, this progress will provide improving conditions in 2022 and beyond for CCRI to deploy its solutions at scale and at pace. In addition to the keynote speech by CCRI Chair John Haley, in which he called for a new financial order to protect markets from climate risk, CCRI participated in a number of key panel events on resilience and finance.
“CCRI has kept its promise to deliver practical solutions for a better pricing of physical climate risks in investment decision-making. We are launching a tool that will allow for the identification of projects most capable of protecting the economic, social, and ecosystem value in Jamaica over the next 20 years.”
John Haley, CCRI Chair and Willis Towers Watson CEO, addressing COP26 Leaders’ Summit.
At CCRI’s panel session on Integrating Resilience into Investment Decision-making, CCRI Co-chair Samir Assaf emphasised the time for action is now and specifically that asset owners should take advantage of latest data and methodology to evaluate and integrate physical climate risks into investment decision making, mobilising capital that builds resilience into asset design, improves return on investment and creates sustainable social and economic development.
Pearnel Charles, Jamaica’s Minister of Housing, Urban Renewal, Environment and Climate Change, spoke at CCRI’s Defining and Measuring Systemic Resilience event on data’s importance when responding to climate change and highlighted the value of CCRI’s Systemic Risk Assessment tool (SRAT), designed to assess climate risk to Jamaica's major infrastructure networks and visualise hot spots of economic and social value at risk.
“We see [climate risk] not as a threat, but an opportunity, because in defining those risks and in applying the prices of those risks we become able to define the better solutions, and so not only will we become better prepared but we will also be more attractive to investment and to investors."
Pearnel Charles, Jamaica’s Minister of Housing, Urban Renewal, Environment and Climate Change.
Beyond the CCRI sessions, our initiative was part of an additional seven events and panels, as well as the subject of a dozen senior meetings across the two weeks. Beyond the great showcasing of the Coalition’s work, we left COP26 with clear expressions of interest from critical stakeholders and initiatives to work with CCRI.
A highlight of the summit was the Official UN COP26 “Art + Resilience” exhibition, presented by CCRI. Enjoying a tremendously positive response from delegates, the exhibition demonstrated the unique role art can play to inspire change, with works of art from around the world delivering a powerful visual message about the role of data in delivering meaningful action in response to climate risk.
After an action packed year, that includes the recent publication of our first report “Risk and Resilience – Addressing Physical Climate Risks in Infrastructure Investment”, we can look forward with confidence to the year ahead, increasing the momentum we have built together and continuing CCRI’s mission to develop radical innovations that can be turned into practical solutions at a global scale. With next year's COP to be staged in Africa, solutions that drive the long-term mobilisation of climate finance and accelerate resilience to help the most vulnerable countries absorb climate impacts will be front and centre.
As always, many thanks for your support. I also wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Carlos Sanchez,
Executive Director, CCRI
About the Coalition for Climate
Resilient Investment
A United Nations Climate Action Summit (UNCAS) and COP26 flagship initiative, The Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment (CCRI) represents the commitment of the global private financial industry, in partnership with key private and public institutions, to foster the more efficient integration of physical climate risks (PCRs) in investment decision-making.
CCRI aims to create a more resilient global financial industry in which key incentive structures foster an accurate pricing of physical climate risks (PCRs) in investment decision-making, resulting in more resilient economies and communities across the world.
The Coalition brings together private companies, governments and inter-governmental bodies, including many of the world’s leading financial businesses and asset managers that collectively manage more than US$20 trillion in assets.
