Hosted by CISL in collaboration with the ClimateWise insurance network, this lab explored how insurance can catalyse investment into nature-based projects, taking a strategic sector-wide approach rather than focusing on specific hazards.

Across three workshops between February and June 2024, the lab convened insurers, reinsurers, brokers, banks and asset managers to map the current insurance landscape, identify where new product development is needed, and explore emerging innovative financial mechanisms. Through this exercise, six areas of focus were identified: collaboration, risk mitigation, data, financial innovation, value analysis and community empowerment. Key solutions include:

1. Encouraging insurers to share NbS costs with banks and other financial institutions to spread risk and align incentives
2. Developing shared data and modelling standards for NbS to overcome the current lack of consistent metrics
3. Better quantifying the co-benefits of NbS to strengthen the investment case and attract diverse funders
4. A phased roadmap for implementing innovative financing models, supported by 20 real-world examples of insurance roles in NbS projects.

This lab demonstrated the value of cross-sector dialogue in overcoming barriers to NbS investment, moving beyond the confines of specific hazard types.

Partner: CISL, ClimateWise, ABI, AON, AXA, Beazley, Flood Re, Howden, Inigo Insurance, Liberty, QBE, RenaissanceRe, WTW, ManuLife, Rathbones, PensionFonds PGB, Robeco, State Street, UBP, Zurich Re, ABN-AMRO, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, NatWest, Santander, Standard Chartered