Guy Carpenter and Flood Re, the UK’s flood reinsurance scheme, recently partnered to host a webinar that highlights the importance of demanding improved planning, greater adaptability and proactive engagement across multiple stakeholders to enhance flood resilience.
The webinar, titled “Climate change – improving the flood resilience of the built environment”, was held on November 20 and was attended by almost 300 delegates. It brought together senior representatives from Guy Carpenter, Flood Re and the UK’s Environment Agency, as well as the wider flood risk management community. The webinar’s speakers discussed how flood-related mitigation and recovery plans spanning multiple critical stakeholders must be introduced to provide a more sustainable and economically viable approach to resilience across the UK.
Echoing the theme of adaptation, Andy Bord, CEO of Flood Re, called for a more all-encompassing approach to flood risk management that extended beyond more effective flood defences and into the wider built environment.
“Over the next 30 years, climate change will increase UK annual flood losses by up to 80%,” he told delegates. “While £1.1 billion a year of flood damage is being prevented by the UK’s existing network of river barriers and coastal defences, it is not enough to just build higher defences to hold back the water. We need to learn to adapt. It is critical that flood considerations are prioritised when making planning decisions and developing new homes or retrofitting existing homes. Such considerations are also central for householders at high risk of flooding.
“By taking action now I believe we can adapt and ‘build back better’ – an approach we have been advocating for over four years. This is what must happen to ensure the built environment is more prepared for and resilient to future flooding.”
“Fundamentally, we need to get better at planning and adapting to the unavoidable impacts of climate change,” warned Julie Foley, director of flood risk strategy and national adaptation at the Environment Agency.
“We are updating our guidance so that all new flood and coastal defences in England are designed to account for a range of climate impacts, including from a 4°C rise in global temperature by 2100. We are also refreshing our strategic approach to tidal flood risk management for London and the Thames Estuary to the end of the century.”
The webinar also stressed the critical role of the (re)insurance industry in bolstering resilience to rising flood risks and the impacts of climate change. A key aspect of this, Guy Carpenter said, is fostering greater collaboration between public and private entities to establish the most effective ways of addressing these risks.
“More recently, the theme of resilience has gained increasing resonance in discussions around public sector de-risking, and we believe that sessions such as this are essential in helping all stakeholders to further understand the benefits of improved risk mitigation measures to move towards risk-based pricing,” said Charles Whitmore (pictured), international public sector lead at Guy Carpenter. “The (re)insurance market needs to move faster to embed risk mitigation and adaptation measures in the insurance product and thereby incentivise consumers to own more of this process.”
