Convex funds climate research partnership
Convex Group, the London and Bermuda-based specialty re/insurer cofounded by Stephen Catlin, has announced a multi-million-dollar partnership with the Blue Marine Foundation (BLUE) and the University of Exeter.
The partnership sees the launch of the Convex Blue Carbon Seascape Survey, bringing together ocean and blue carbon scientists. The five-year global research programme aims to improve understanding of the role and capabilities of the ocean and its continental shelves in terms of the earth’s carbon cycle. Ultimately, it’s hoped the findings may identify “nature-based solutions” that could help slow climate change.
Spearheaded by BLUE and the University of Exeter, the survey aims to provide timely, accurate, and open access data on the world’s seabed carbon stores.
According to the partners, studies show that ocean-based mitigation could provide up to a fifth of the solution needed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, the ocean seabed remains largely unprotected, and seascape carbon is presently not accounted for in inventories of carbon emissions compiled by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change.
Catlin, chairman and CEO of Convex, said: “Anticipating and mitigating future risks is at the heart of what we do at Convex. Our ability to make informed decisions rests upon our access to and analysis of robust data – the same is true when combatting climate change.
The survey will build on previous research gathered from the Catlin Arctic Survey and the Catlin Seaview Survey, projects sponsored by Catlin Group – the Convex chairman’s previous business, which he sold to XL in 2015.
George Duffield, the co-founder of BLUE, a charity “dedicated to restoring the ocean to health to restoring the ocean to health”, said: “What distinguishes our project from others is that we will not stop having identified the problems; we plan to field test the solutions as well.”
Professor Callum Roberts, professor at the University of Exeter and BLUE’s chief scientific adviser and trustee, added: “The ocean and its resources, while vital to all life on earth, are currently misunderstood and neglected. The survey endeavours to bring much-needed clarity to our understanding of the ocean, including the amount of carbon stored in coastal seascapes and on the continental shelves, as well as how vulnerable these stores are to man-made damage.”
