Verisk institutes climate advisory council

Insurance analytics provider Verisk has announced the launch of the Verisk Climate Advisory Council, a body aimed to help organisations better understand the impacts of climate change and inform their sustainability efforts. Council members will provide guidance and feedback on climate change solutions being developed by Verisk, including the climate conditioning of the company’s extreme event models. It will also present research specific to each member’s specialty area regarding the evolving state of climate change.

The Verisk Climate Advisory Council currently includes the following climate experts:

• Dr. Cindy Bruyère, director of the Capacity Center for Climate and Weather Extremes at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Bruyère was the 2020-2021 scientific and engineering leadership fellow for the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. She serves as a research fellow at the North-West University in South Africa. Her research focuses on the impact of weather and climate extremes
• Dr. Henk Dijkstra, professor of dynamical oceanography at the Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, Utrecht, and director of the Centre for Complex Systems Studies at Utrecht University. Dijkstra’s research focuses on understanding the physics of large-scale ocean circulation and the role of the ocean in the climate system. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2005, Dijkstra received the Lewis Fry Richardson Medal from the European Geosciences Union
• Dr. Kenneth E. Kunkel, research professor of atmospheric studies at North Carolina State University and lead scientist for assessments with the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies. Kunkel’s research focuses on climate variability and change, particularly related to extreme weather and climate events. He is the author of several chapters of the Third and Fourth US National Climate Assessments. Kunkel is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society
• Dr. Park Williams, associate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Park is a hydroclimatologist whose research aims to understand the causes and consequences of hydrological extremes such as drought. He is an expert on the causes and consequences of drought, and how this has transformed the American West as temperatures rise, as well as how society should adapt to more frequent droughts and wildfires

“At Verisk, we have long been engaged with leading scientists and engineers, often alongside customers, to ensure the solutions we create reflect the latest science, freshest perspectives and cutting-edge technologies,” said Mark Anquillare, chief operating officer and group president at Verisk. “Clients across a wide range of industries that need to understand and manage risk from weather, climate and environmental perils rely on Verisk for analytic insights and science-based solutions to help assess and mitigate the complex risks associated with a changing climate. We’re fortunate to have the benefit of the council members’ expertise to support this important work.”

“Verisk has developed leading extreme event models for addressing risk, and continued collaboration with outside experts is critical to maintaining this position in the market,” said Bill Churney, president of Extreme Event Solutions at Verisk. “We’re excited to begin working with the council members, and we’re confident that with their feedback, we will not only build more sophisticated solutions that reflect our best understanding of the future climate, but also offer enhanced value to help our clients better address this critical issue facing society.”