Actuaries Institute Climate & Sustainability Working Group

The Climate & Sustainability Working Group (CSWG) of the Actuaries Institute actively supports actuaries working in climate risk related roles to share best practice within the profession and contribute to public policy discussions of climate-related and sustainability issues. Given the multidisciplinary nature of climate-related and sustainability issues, the CSWG also liaises with other various external groups and professions.

Policy Position Statement 

Based on expert scientific findings, the Actuaries Institute recognises that the world’s climate is warming at the fastest rate in modern history and that greenhouse gas emissions by human activity are the main cause of this warming. Climate change is having major environmental, economic and social impacts and these impacts are increasing over time. Climate change poses serious risks to communities and to the sectors that actuaries advise, including government, insurance, banking, wealth management, superannuation and investments. Actuaries have considerable expertise in managing risk and uncertainty. Working with other stakeholders and often in multidisciplinary teams, actuaries are well placed to assist in:

• Identifying and understanding the risks and the range of consequences of climate change in the short term, medium term and long term;
• developing policy options and strategies to respond to these risks; and
• developing and implementing frameworks to manage the risks over time.

1. The Actuaries Institute supports the goal of 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change to limit temperature increase to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, to pursue efforts to limit temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, and to achieve net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by the second half of the 21st Century.
   
   
2. The Actuaries Institute supports the development of public policy to improve resilience against climate physical risk and natural disaster risk and the implementation of adaptation measures to reduce Australia’s vulnerability to climate and disaster risk.
   
   
3. The Actuaries Institute seeks to promote a well-informed public debate on responses to climate change, and to support actuarial contributions to the development of effective responses to climate change.

The full statement can be found here.