For the two billion people around the world who depend on smallholder farming for their livelihoods, extreme weather can push them into poverty. Climate risk insurance (CRI) is a tool that can help people build their resilience, plan their future, and recover when disaster strikes.
The UK is leading the way internationally on CRI, and has the chance at this year’s UN climate conference (7-18 November) to promote its good work. ‘Sovereign risk schemes’ supported by the UK allow governments in regions affected by natural disasters to fund recovery plans quickly and effectively, averting humanitarian catastrophe and saving lives and resources.
These schemes must reach far wider than is currently planned for, if we are to help all the vulnerable people who need climate protection, a key aim of the Global Goals. Only by getting climate risk insurance schemes strongly backed at the UN negotiations can this succeed.
Please write to the responsible UK Government Ministers, Rt. Hon. Rory Stewart MP and Nick Hurd MP, asking them to showcase the UK’s good work at the UN climate conference, in order to gain wide international support for climate risk insurance.