The Climate Insurance Starter Pack
From “Parametric … what?” to “Our payouts trigger before the storm makes landfall.”
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Hey there! 👋
Skander here.
Whole communities sit one cyclone away from ruin while humanitarian budgets shrink and the private market bails on “uninsurable” ZIP codes. Time to reboot how we price, transfer and pre-fund climate risk.
Below is your Climate Insurance Starter Pack: a no-fluff, open-access crash course sliced by knowledge level before our Open Climate panel on Climate Insurance.
Everything’s < 3 years old unless it’s an untouchable classic, and we’ve sliced the list by experience level so you can jump straight to the good stuff.
🌊 Let’s dive in
Join us this week Wednesday for a 60-minute LIVE Open Climate Session + rapid-fire Q&A with five experts already testing new ways to insure and finance climate resilience:
Gloria Womitso
Head of Humanitarian Insurance, African Risk Capacity Ltd.; designs parametric covers for governments, UN agencies, and NGOs across the continent.
Inah Fatoumata Kaloga
Senior Director, Violence Prevention & Response, International Rescue Committee; develops blended-finance tools to fund protection programmes in crisis settings.
Mojisola Terry
Climate Insurance Lead, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency; pilots disaster-insurance schemes that cover displaced people against droughts and other climate shocks.
Nakita Devlin
Co-Founder & CEO, Ric; builds micro-parametric insurance products that deliver instant payouts to households hit by extreme weather.Yusuf Bodiat
Head of Finance & Investment, African Risk Capacity Ltd.; oversees portfolio strategy and capital deployment for Africa’s sovereign disaster-risk pool.
The Climate Insurance Starter Pack
Beginner:
“Insurance… but for climate?”
Start here if “parametric” sounds like spaceship jargon. These two quick reads break down the core idea: you pre-agree on a simple trigger (say, 200 mm of rain in 24 hours) and money lands in the account days, not months, after a storm. No loss adjusters, no red tape, just cash on the ground when communities need it most.
👉 Start here in Moji’s primer on Climate insurance
Can Parametric Insurance Change the Game in Climate Disasters? (Thomson Reuters Foundation, 2025)
A plain-language explainer on how parametric insurance offers quick payouts when climate extremes hit, and why it’s gaining traction globally.
Breaks down the basics of parametric models (payouts triggered by pre-set markers like rainfall levels) and highlights real examples from India to the Caribbean. Great for understanding what climate insurance is and why speed matters in disasters.
The Value of Parametric Insurance in Climate Disasters (UK Government Actuary’s Department, 2024)
A plain-language explainer on how parametric insurance offers quick payouts when climate extremes hit, and why it’s gaining traction globally.
Breaks down the basics of parametric models (payouts triggered by pre-set markers like rainfall levels) and highlights real examples from India to the
Intermediate:
“Insurance… but for climate?”
You know the trigger-payout drill; now zoom out to the system level. These pieces show how parametric cover scales from one-off policy to national lifeline, think sovereign risk pools that wire cash to governments within days, and pre-agreed “disaster funds” that kick in when donor aid stalls. The through-line: speed, certainty, and pooled muscle turn climate shocks into solvable liquidity problems.
Parametric Insurance as Fast Relief Capital (World Economic Forum, 2024)
A brief insight into using insurance and reinsurance as pre-agreed “disaster funds.” It argues that with donor aid less reliable, parametric policies (focused on an event’s magnitude rather than assessed losses) can offer speedy, no-strings payouts after a climate shock Think of it as a bridge between humanitarian aid and insurance: quick cash for recovery when a hurricane or drought strikes, complementing traditional relief.
15 Years of Sovereign Risk Pools (World Bank Blog, 2021)
A retrospective on how regional catastrophe risk pools (like the Caribbean’s CCRIF and Africa’s ARC) have grown to protect 40+ countries with $1.2 billion in coverage. The authors share lessons learned and innovations: from new insurance products for fishermen and utilities, to satellite-powered flood models in Southeast Asia. Offers a clear look at how pooling risk helps developing countries get affordable coverage and rapid payouts, plus the importance of donor support in making these schemes viable.
Building Resilience Through Insurance (Climate Proof, 2025)
A 30-minute conversation with Dr. Carolyn Kousky (founder of Insurance for Good) about leveraging insurance for climate resilience. In down-to-earth terms, she discusses the growing protection gap and why traditional markets struggle with climate risks.
Intermediate:
“Insurance… but for climate?”
The Missing Middle in Parametric Insurance (Suyana Climate Newsletter, 2024)
An in-depth look at who’s still falling through the cracks of the climate insurance market. It tackles the pervasive issue of basis risk – when a parametric trigger doesn’t perfectly reflect actual losses – and how that undermines trust. The piece highlights opportunities to expand coverage to the “missing middle” (those not reached by big sovereign deals or micro policies) and suggests ways to bridge this protection gap.
Beyond Parametric: Insuring the IFRC’s Disaster Fund (Centre for Disaster Protection, 2023)
A case study of a new Red Cross insurance policy that doesn’t rely on a weather index trigger. Instead, it covers the Red Cross Disaster Response Fund by paying out when the fund’s own crisis spending exceeds a threshold – a novel approach more akin to an aggregate stop-loss cover than a parametric payout. This blog explains why the IFRC chose this structure and how it was possible to develop an insurance solution for a humanitarian organization without using a traditional index.
Climate Justice Inverted? Insurance and Loss & Damage (APRI policy brief, 2024)
A critical assessment of climate insurance from an African climate justice perspective. This report warns that insurance can only ever cover a slice of climate losses – and that expecting poor nations or communities to pay premiums for protection is often unworkable. It recounts past challenges (like high costs, basis risk, low uptake) and argues that initiatives like the Global Shield must avoid these pitfalls. The authors call for insurance to be a backup tool alongside robust public systems (social safety nets, a well-funded loss & damage program), rather than a silver bullet.
Thanks for reading! Know someone who should get up to speed on Climate Insurance ? 👉 Forward this starter pack to them or send them the Open Climate Fireside.
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