International insurance group Howden announced today the launch of a new Climate Risk and Resilience division, aimed at enabling clients to de-risk the move to a low carbon economy and help mitigate the results of climate change.

David Howden, CEO of Howden Group, said:

“I don’t know that there has ever been a more important moment for the insurance industry to prove its power as an enabler for change. The move to a low-carbon economy simply cannot happen without insurance; with the launch of this team, we’re investing in the people and resources to help drive that change.”

According to Howden, the new division will focus on risk transfer products, using insurance to enable capital allocation towards addressing climate action and resilience. The team will also implement ideas and insight collected across the Howden Group for the creation of future solutions.

The new team will be led by Head of Climate Risk and Resilience Charlie Langdale. Langdale said:

“We’re helping to remove barriers to financing the projects that will help us move towards a low-carbon economy, whilst also creating scalable, sustainable markets for funding disaster response by unlocking private capital for social good. We’re driving capital to where it otherwise wouldn’t go and, in doing so, tackling climate risk from both a reduction and recovery angle.”

Today’s announcement follows the recent launch by Howden of sustainability-focused insurer Parhelion, aimed at addressing the surge in institutional capital seeking sustainable investment strategies with the growing demand from corporates looking for an insurance provider to support their ESG transitions.

Howden added:

“We’re bringing together the best minds from within our business, and experts from outside the industry, to help us identify and develop the solutions that will have genuine impact in helping our clients in the transition to a more sustainable world.”