Gonéri Le Cozannet, a BRGM engineer specialised in coastal risks and climate change, and anauthor of the 6th IPCC reportreport, is one of three experts, along with Myriam Mérad and Thierry Langreney, appointed by the Government to investigate the insurability of climate risks.
On Friday 26 May 2023, Bruno le Maire, the French Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, and Christophe Béchu, the French Minister for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, announced the launch of this commission, which is tasked with drawing up recommendations on the challenges and changes facing the French insurance system with respect to climate risks.
A review and recommendations on how the French insurance system should evolve to take climate change into account
The increase in the intensity and frequency of climatic events in mainland France and its overseas territories is leading to a significant and lasting rise in the cost of compensation for material, agricultural and business losses, which could amount to €70 billion in additional costs over the next three decades.
This exponential rise in insurance costs means that we need to think about what additional prevention efforts need to be made and how to guarantee the future insurability of individuals, businesses, local and regional authorities and ecosystems in areas that are highly exposed to climate risks.
The commission has been assigned the task of making proposals:
- to guarantee the sustainability of the natural disaster compensation system,
- and to strengthen the role of the insurance system in preventing, mitigating and adapting to climate change.
A mission entrusted to three experts
The mission has been entrusted to three leading figures recognised for their expertise in the fields of insurance, risk and climate change:
- Myriam Mérad, Director of Research at the CNRS, assigned to the Analysis and Modelling Laboratory of Decision Support Systems at the University of Paris Dauphine. An expert in the societal management of major risks, she chairs the scientific advisory board of the French association for the prevention of natural and technological disasters.
- Thierry Langreney, president of the environmental association Ateliers du futur, is the former deputy CEO of Crédit Agricole Assurances and CEO of its property insurance subsidiary Pacifica.
- Gonéri Le Cozannet, an engineer with a doctorate in geography, works at the French Geological Survey (BRGM) as a specialist in coastal risks and climate change. He has contributed to to the 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability to climate change in Europe and the Mediterranean.
Extensive consultation with stakeholders
With the support of the French Treasury and the Caisse Centrale de Réassurance, the commission will analyse the relevance of our current tools for compensating and preventing climate risks, and the role of the insurance system regarding adapting to climate change in mainland France and its overseas territories.
The commission will also draw on the expertise of the departments and specialists of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, in particular the National Observatory on the Effects of Global Warming (ONERC), the Directorate-General for Risk Prevention (DGPR), BRGM and Météo France.
The commission will undertake a wide-ranging consultation of the stakeholders involved – insurers, reinsurers, research bodies, elected representatives and representatives of civil society.
The mission is part of the ecological planning work being carried out under the authority of the Prime Minister. It will make its recommendations to ministers by December 2023.
