A new data hub, described as a “global window” to much of the world’s environmental and risk data, has launched today in an effort to tackle a whopping $125 bn (£97 billion) natural hazard protection gap.
Oasis HUB, which was launched from Willis Towers Watson’s London HQ today, is a transparent data exchange which aims to help communities adapt and protect themselves against the worst disasters, the organisation said in a release.
Previously, insurers would have to go to the big risk-modelling firms to acquire this kind of data, which could be cost-prohibitive – particularly in a challenging business environment, Oasis’s managing director, Tracy Irvine, told Insurance Business.
With many different areas within environmental itself, until now the data had been largely siloed, she explained.
“We wanted to take away that siloed approach and put [the data types] all together in one space – public data, free data, but also and importantly, the commercial data in the same space, and this is where we’re unique to the others,” she noted.
Now, using data from universities and research institutes, as well as the commercial sector, the hope is that through the hub, the industry can start to better understand and assess the risks, which could lead to prices being pushed down.
Since the 1980s, the global number of registered weather-related loss events has tripled, and total economic losses to property and infrastructure from natural disasters have averaged around $180 billion (£140 billion) annually, Oasis said in a release.
And the insurance industry is already all too aware of rising climate-related and natural hazard risks.
“The good thing about the insurance sector is because they have been recording this for years, the evidence for climate change is really quite strong – probably stronger than anywhere else, really, because they’re actively managing the losses,” Irvine commented.
Those signing up to the Oasis HUB have, expectedly, come mostly from a natural catastrophe modelling background, but Irvine said there has been more variety than anticipated.
“We’ve been quite surprised at those registering,” she said. “It’s been a wide range of insurers and reinsurers… There is the potential for many parts of the insurance sector to use it, from property to agricultural insurance and forestry insurance.”
The hub received funding from Climate-KIC and H2020, part of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology.
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