The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has released a 2023 update of its climate change roadmap, “Towards a Net Zero and Resilient Future.”
The roadmap outlines the Australian insurance industry’s commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2030 for operations and 2050 across the entire value chain.
The update includes new sections on the insurance industry’s implementation strategies and case studies and results of a survey of ICA members on their progress towards net zero.
The ICA’s survey found that over 85% of its members set organisation-wide net-zero goals by 2050 or earlier, with over 60% setting interim targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across their operations, supply chains, and investments.
The survey also found that ICA members invested in renewable energy and efficiency and worked with communities to improve resilience to climate change impacts.
“The insurance industry is at the forefront of the impacts of climate change. In 2022 alone, there were more than 302,000 disaster-related claims lodged from four declared insurance events across the country, costing $7.28 billion in insured losses,” said ICA CEO Andrew Hall. “Our members are taking decisive action to address worsening extreme weather driven by a changed climate, as well as building a more resilient future for all Australians. The updated roadmap will help us achieve our net zero targets.”
The ICA’s climate change roadmap, which was introduced last year, recently won the Sustainability Award at the 27th Asia insurance Industry, an award judged by 26 panellists across the global insurance industry and audited by KPMG.
