What the weather crisis in Valencia reminds us of

The recent catastrophic floods in Valencia serve as a humbling wake up call of the devastating impact of climate change and the weather crisis humanity is facing. This extreme weather episode highlights (yet again) the urgent need for global action to mitigate climate risks and build resilience in cities and communities. 

Obsolete insurance models 

As we have discussed in previous posts, climate change represents significant challenges as climate change intensifies. Traditional risk models, often based on historical data, are becoming increasingly inadequate and insufficient, cornering insurance companies into raising their prices or pulling out from certain places. Adapting to this new reality may need: 

• Enhancing Risk Assessment: Incorporating climate change scenarios into risk models to accurately assess future risks. 

• Developing Innovative Products: Offering innovative insurance products designed specifically to cover climate-related risks, such as parametric insurance. 

• Promoting Climate Resilience: Collaborating with governments and individuals to implement climate resilience strategies, such as flood prevention measures, and partnering with companies that may offer valuable insights and data otherwise unavailable to them in-house, like what 7Analytics provides. 

Is this Climate Tech’s call to action?  

Climate tech innovators have a key role to play right at this moment when we are seeing climate disasters globally. Their action on enhancing climate analytics is crucial to joining the efforts of mitigating climate risks and building a sustainable future. Areas where climate technologies are best positioned to create a positive impact are: 

• Improve Flood Prediction: Enhancing flood prediction models to provide early warnings and enable timely response, saving lives and infrastructure. 

• Strengthen Monitoring Systems: Developing and deploy advanced real-time monitoring systems to track weather patterns, issue alerts and ensure preparedness. 

• Design Climate-Resilient Infrastructure: Integrating resiliency in infrastructure and transportation systems by design, so that it can withstand extreme weather events.  

While communities around the world struggle with the increasing frequency and severity of climate-related disasters, it is urgent that insurers come together with climate tech, and that they are provided the support to do so, to prioritize climate mitigation and adaptation action. The only path to accelerating building a more resilient future for all is to find ways of collaborating and making a joint effort to find the best solutions.