Howden launches climate risk and resilience division at critical moment for industry

Howden has launched a new climate risk and resilience division to help clients accelerate and de-risk their transition to a low carbon economy and mitigate the results of climate change.

The division is led by Charlie Langdale, head of climate risk and resilience at Howden, bringing together ideas and insights from across the group to create solutions that address the needs of its clients.

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.”

David Howden, chief executive officer at 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.”

Howden has already collaborated with the Danish Red Cross and others this year on the first ever volcano catastrophe bond. It also developed a carbon offset invalidation insurance for the California Cap and Trade scheme, and is helping to launch the world’s first fully sustainable insurer, Parhelion.