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About the project

What is Climate Adaptation?

Adaptation means adjusting to both actual and expected effects of climate change.

By adapting to the consequences of climate change, such as extreme weather events, wildfires and floods, we can protect ourselves and our communities from further damages and also benefit from possible opportunities. Adaptation is not separate from other climate actions such as mitigation and risk management - these are essentially interlinked. For example, to be able to adapt with smaller costs we must urge green transition and mitigation worldwide.

Climate Adaptation

Adaptation in general refers to adjustments in ecological, social and economic systems and it consists of groups of actions including risk reduction and risk sharing. Climate adaptation is high on the European economic and political agenda, and their strategy on adaptation has four principal objectives: to make adaptation smarter, swifter and more systemic all while boosting international action on adaptation to climate change.

The PIISA project supports climate change adaption across all policy levels and supports the Mission on Adaption to Climate Change.



Adaptation and climate risk insurance at the core of the PIISA project

It is essential for all actors to adapt to the changing climate and reduce the climate risks that touch their sector or sphere of life. At the moment, there is an adaptation gap, meaning that the level of implemented adaptation is insufficient to meet the adaptation targets. This gap needs to be addressed. Insurance companies can help fill the gap by encouraging insurance users to better prepare and adapt to the changing climate and reduce risks. This can be partially filled by providing information and guidelines, and partially by financial premiums for insurance users.

Insurance is a contract that allows a policyholder to receive compensation from a provider, typically an insurance company, for a certain loss in exchange for the periodic payment of small amounts of money. As such, insurance instruments allow policyholders to share some or all of their risk with third parties, and insurance providers to pool risks from many different policyholders.

Climate insurance is meant to reimburse policyholders for losses generated by natural hazards such as cyclones, earthquakes, storms, floods and wildfires, which are being exacerbated by climate change. Most climate insurance products take the form of indemnity contracts, whereby a policyholder is compensated for material losses based on specific contractual conditions such as deductibles or cover limits. Before a claim can be paid, the insurance provider has to quantify the losses, which can considerably slow down the repayment process. Alternative types of products, such as parametric insurance or microinsurance, have emerged in recent years, but they are still not widely utilised.

New climate insurance products can encourage adaptation measures

In 2011-2020, the climate insurance protection gap worldwide amounted to 64% of total losses, with huge disparities across regions. In the EU, it is estimated that only 25% of losses are currently insured, with shares as low as 5% in certain countries. Differences in insurance penetration also exist across sectors and hazard types.

In spite of efficient risk mitigation and adaptation efforts, all climate risks cannot be prevented. Insurance provides protection against so-called residual risks. In those cases, insurance can help cover the damages. Well-designed climate insurance products can greatly reduce the adverse consequences of climate risks by rapidly providing available funds for recovery and reconstruction. This also limits the need for governmental relief, thus mitigating economic damage.

Existing insurance products may not, however, be sufficient for the changing conditions. New, innovative insurance products can both encourage adaptation measures and bring security to the policyholder. We develop new insurance concepts or products for three sectors: cities (considering nature-based solutions and well-being), agriculture and forestry sectors. The PIISA project will first pilot the concepts in the specifically chosen locations with key stakeholders, and then it will assess their potential for wider uptake.

What is PIISA?

Piisa image

PIISA stands for “Piloting Innovative Insurance Solutions for Adaptation” and is a 3-year Research and Innovation Action funded under the Horizon Europe programme within the call “HORIZON-MISS-2022-CLIMA-01”. The partnership brings together 12 organisations from 5 European countries, and will co-develop climate resilient insurance portfolios, as well as develop solutions for sharing climate-related risk and losses data. The focal sectors benefiting from the project are agriculture, forestry, cities and citizens’ well-being, tackling a host of climate enhanced hazards such as floods, droughts, forest fires, biotic risks, and various types of storms. 

What is PIISA’s ambition?

PIISA aims to develop and deploy a range of insurance innovations to cover at least 50% of losses attributable to climate change effects in Europe. The project hopes to support households, firms, and public authorities to set up adaptation and create adaptation promoting conditions. 

Piisa ambitions
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Work Packages

WP1

Innovation in Insurance Solutions

This WP reviews the current state of the market for climate risk insurance and analyses the challenges and opportunities to overcome market barriers through innovation in design and delivery of insurance products and services.

Work Package Leader :
Jaroslav Mysiak

WP2

Innovations in adaptation and climate services for insurance

This WP is dedicated to co‑design, co‑develop and co‑produce climate services. As defined by WMO, a climate service is a decision aid derived from climate information that assists individuals and organizations to make climate‑informed decisions. In PIISA, WP2 transforms the needs of insurance for creating innovative products, as clarified in WP1, into enhanced data and climate indicator, e.g high‑resolution gridded data and climate indices for parametric insurance, return period services, city microclimatic solutions, etc. The solutions are co‑designed, co‑developed and co‑produced in the context of the pilots, in collaboration with WP3.


Work Package Leader :
Sara dal Gesso

WP3

Pilots

This WP focuses on the development of new innovative concepts, advanced products, and services through piloting The following themes will be explored in the pilots:

Pilot 1 - Green Roof Insurances,

Pilot 2 - Addressing soil stability risks for home owner insurance holders,

Pilot 3 - Insurance Services for Agriculture,

Pilot 4 - Forest Insurances against selected biotic and abiotic risks and

Pilot 5 - Wildfire insurance enhancing adaptive actions.


Work Package Leader :
Heikki Tuomevirta

WP4

Dissemination, exploitation and communication

This WP is dedicated to communicating and disseminating the activities and results generated in PIISA to target audience as well as to promoting a dialogue with key stakeholders and exploiting the outcomes. These activities serve all other work packages.


Work Package Leader :
Kati Berninger

WP5

Project Management

This WP is responsible for administration and overall coordination of the project.


Work Package Leader :
Hilppa Gregow

EAB Members
  • Mikael Hildén -
    Finnish Environment Institute SYKE
  • Franscesco Sciascia -
    Green Assicurazioni SRL
  • Pascal Forrer - AIAG
  • Jaakko Nuottokari -
    Finnish Meteorological Institute
  • Roberta Boscolo - WMO
  • Vylon Ooms -
    Dutch Association of Insurers
  • Leigh Wolfrom -
    OECD’s Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs
  • as well as 4 more experts.