SANTA CRUZ — Experts in the field of climate change, public policy and the insurance industry gathered at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center on Thursday to discuss ways to reduce the risks associated with climate caused natural disasters using insurance and nature-based solutions such as preserving and bolstering wetlands to prevent flooding.
The event, called the Coastal Climate Resilience Symposium, was organized and led by UC Santa Cruz Marine Sciences Professor Michael W. Beck in his new role as director of the campus’ recently established Center for Coastal Climate Resilience.
“We’ve been working together in this interface between insurance, risk management and nature for quite some time,” said Beck. “We realized a long time ago that we, as either scientists or environmentalists, couldn’t do this on our own. Being able to get industry and the agencies involved talking together with us was the only way to achieve large scale action.”
Beck pointed out that there is lots of state and federal monies set aside for disaster relief and mitigation, after the fact, but not as much budgeted for the prevention of natural disasters through strategies such as nature-based solutions.
“If we can apply some of that money and apply it to nature based solutions, we can expand the work that we do protecting our coast ten fold,” he said. “Environmental budgets are shrinking in this day and age but disaster recovery and hazard mitigation budgets are growing.”
The symposium featured speakers and discussion panels consisting of innovative insurance industry professionals and government representatives such as California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, who gave an opening talk and also spoke on the panel, “Reducing Risk with Nature and Insurance,” which featured Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley, Stephen Hill with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and David Maurstad with Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“I started learning about a project that was coming about in Mexico where insurance agencies were coordinating with nonprofits and the government to save the coral reef,” said Lara. “That was when we came up with the concept of climate insurance to mitigate and close protection gaps in some of our most vulnerable communities.”
Deborah Halberstadt with the California Department of Insurance led a panel called “Unlocking Nature and Insurance to Build Coastal Resilience.” The panel featured Lindsay Judd, environmental underwriter with the insurance company AXA XL, Emily Corwin, director of Nature-based Engineering Solutions at Conservation International and Nuin-Tara Key with the WTW Climate and Resilience Hub.
The panel focused on the challenges of quantifying the return on investment for nature based solutions to climate change and the role of insurance in that process, among other topics.
“Insurance can be used as an incentive and a driver for behavior change and the types of resilience investment that we need,” said Key. “For example, being able to continue investing in eco-forestry and better forest management.”
One of the primary goals of the symposium was to put the seemingly disparate professionals in one room to talk about climate change to discover new ways to work together.
“Partners work hard to communicate which leads to collaboration because you have a common set of goals,” said Hill. “That collaboration then leads to what’s most important, a broader commitment.”
