Protecting solar panels in Puerto Rico Located approximately 1 600 kilometres southeast of Miami, Puerto Rico sits directly in the path of potential North Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes. The devastating human toll and physical destruction caused by hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 underscored the archipelago’s vulnerability to hurricanes. Strong winds toppled power lines, leaving 1.4 million customers in the dark and hampering recovery efforts. Puerto Rico’s reliance on an ageing, fossil-fuel-powered energy infrastructure with a centralised distribution network contributed to what would become the largest and longest blackout in US history: it took 11 months to restore power to the island’s most remote locations.
In September 2020, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions and its data partner, kWh Analytics, successfully developed a ten-year Solar Revenue Put for an investor in large, utility-scale solar projects. The client was familiar with this Business Unit’s power-generation expertise and claims experience from previous insurance transactions.
Using proceeds of Mexico’s cat bond to finance World Bank development projects
According to the World Bank, over 40% of Mexico’s territory and up to one-third of its population are exposed to hurricanes, storms, floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. As a result, more than 70% of the country’s GDP is considered to be at-risk from two or more hazards.
In addition, proceeds of the catastrophe bond will be invested in a range of sustainable development projects supported by the World Bank, earning it a “Sustainable Development Bond” label. Such projects aim to improve healthcare and education, reduce poverty, improve living standards, strengthen social security and pension systems, and protect and empower most vulnerable members of society. Swiss Re’s role in structuring this transaction supports our sustainability ambition to build societal resilience and provide sovereigns with climate risk cover and advice, while contributing to sustainable development.
Pandemic Emergency Financing: a first of its kind In 2017, the World Bank and the World Health Organisation (WHO) designed an innovative response mechanism, the Pandemic Emergency Financing facility (PEF), featuring a USD 425 million parametric insurance coverage against infectious disease outbreaks. The PEF’s risk was placed with investors and re/insurers, with Swiss Re Capital Markets acting as joint structurer and sole bookrunner of the catastrophe bond. In April 2020, that coverage was triggered by the COVID-19 outbreak and paid out USD 196 million to the World Bank, the full amount allocated to this specific peril. The funds were used to support the public health response in the neediest countries, in collaboration with agencies such as the United Nations.
The Netherlands, one-third of which famously sits below sea level, has long been known for its extensive experience in managing its vulnerability to water. The 32-kilometre Afsluitdijk is a feat of Dutch engineering that has protected the country against storm surge and sea level rise for almost 90 years. But climate change – and the dyke’s age – meant that the Afsluitdijk would have to be reinforced in order to ensure that it could continue to withstand any combination of severe weather, high water levels and crashing waves.
professional indemnity cover to Levvel as well as the co-lead insurer for the Constractors' All Risks Insurance.
Swiss Re’s involvement in an infrastructure project of such scale reinforces our ambition to mitigate climate risk while advancing the energy transition. And as an integral component of the Dutch government’s long-term Delta Programme – which aims to protect the low-lying country from flooding, mitigate the impact of extreme weather events and secure freshwater supplies – the Afsluitdijk renovation will contribute to making the Netherlands and its economy more resilient to climaterelated risks for years to come.
In February and March 2020, Italy found itself at the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic as hospitalisations and the tragic death toll in its northern provinces rose. It was the first European country to go into lockdown while the world was still struggling to comprehend the severity of the disease. This prompted many individuals to wonder how their families would cope financially should the worst happen.
In Italy, the protection gap for uninsured families in the case of the death or disability of the primary breadwinner amounts to an estimated EUR 8.2 billion. When 4.5 million Italians emerged from lockdown to return to work, there was greater awareness among employees and employers about the importance of life and health protection. Small and mid-sized employers sought to provide life coverage for their low-income employees. In response, elipsLife – a wholly-owned subsidiary of Swiss Re specialised in group life and disability products for pension funds, companies and foundations – adapted a product in Italy to make it affordable for low-income employees who rarely have access to group life coverage. Launched in April, the solution provides broad coverage, including for COVID-related deaths, and is flexible, easy to understand and simple for employers to implement. Premiums start at as little as EUR 13.50 annually, with the option to double the insured benefit for covered individuals with mortgages or minor children.
The shipping industry is responsible for transporting over 90% of international trade across our oceans. But it also accounted for almost 3% of global CO2 emissions in 2018, while the burning of bunker fuel used by ships is responsible for over 90% of all sulphur emissions. In response, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) introduced a sulphur emissions cap of 0.5%, which went into effect in January 2020. It has also set an industry-wide target to reduce the sector’s overall greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050, relative to 2008 levels. As a result, shipping companies are under pressure to develop and deploy innovative technologies that reduce harmful pollutants.
One prime example is Baleària, Spain’s leading shipping company for passenger and freight transport between the Spanish mainland and the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands and North Africa. In 2020, it unveiled its first fast ferry powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG). Swiss Re Global Marine provided reinsurance cover for the construction of this ship and continues to provide reinsurance cover for its hull. At 123
metres in length and with a capacity for 1 200 passengers and 450 cars, it is the world’s largest LNG-fuelled fast ferry. More importantly, it reduces CO2 emissions by 30%, nitrogen oxide by 85% and sulphur by almost 100% compared to the heavy fuel oil typically used in the shipping industry, contributing to improved air quality. As a pioneer in greener shipping technologies, Baleària aims to have nine LNG-powered ferries in its fleet by the end of 2021.
By providing reinsurance capacity for shipping companies that invest in technologies to reduce their emissions, Swiss Re continues to support the industry’s efforts to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy while protecting the environment.
Working as reinsurance partner to Tata AIG General Insurance Company, Swiss Re provided the Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA) with reinsurance protection for the 2020 monsoon season. To do this, we created a new parametric insurance structure that covers the Indian state of Nagaland for excess rainfall that can lead to severe flooding. The coverage is based on a geospatial dataset where rainfall intensity is derived from satellite observations and rain gauges. By design, the state is divided into multiple regions and a stepped payout feature allocates funds to regions in proportion to the amount of recorded rainfall, which mirrors the anticipated levels of loss.
The technology providing yield data for paddy rice is enabled by RIICE (Remote Sensing-based Information and Insurance for Crops in Emerging Economies), a public-private partnership (PPP) between sarmap, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and Swiss Re.
By enabling the deployment of affordable insurance to farmers, the combination of insurance and satellite technologies is proving increasingly useful for public insurance schemes that wish to build resilience in their agricultural sectors.
To help insurance providers on the ground offer affordable, easy-to-use crop insurance to farmers, Swiss Re has partnered with VanderSat, a Dutch-based provider of soil moisture data to develop the Soil Moisture Deficit Index. This technology-driven tool uses satellite data to measure real-time soil moisture levels around the world. Why soil moisture? Because it is a more accurate measure of water availability than rainfall, which does not consider other factors that affect crop yields, such as run-off, evaporation and groundwater levels. In short, low soil moisture levels are closely linked to the drop in yield that occurs due to drought.
Initially launched in three European countries in 2019, the Soil Moisture Deficit Index was further rolled out to insurers in ten additional countries in 2020. Thanks to this innovative drought insurance solution, thousands of farmers in 13 countries across Europe as well as various countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia now benefit from access to financial protection from drought.
In 2020, Swiss Re partnered with the Vietnam National Reinsurer (VINARE) to develop the first index-based rice insurance product adopted within a public scheme by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The scheme draws on satellite technologies to measure rice production and damage to fields, and then uses an index-based trigger to enable swift payouts through a simplified claims process.
Group CEO Michel M. Liès made the following pledge: “By the year 2020, Swiss Re commits to having advised 50 sovereigns and sub-sovereigns on climate risk resilience and to have offered them USD 10 billion against this risk”.
We are proud to have met this target as early as 2019, one year ahead of schedule (see table below). As of the end of the commitment period in 2020, we had advised 130 sovereigns and sub-sovereigns on climate risk resilience and offered a total of USD 10.7 billion in re/insurance protection. We thus exceeded our pledge by USD 0.7 billion and 80 (sub-)sovereigns advised. With this success, we conclude this commitment.
The IDF is a public-private partnership (PPP) led by the insurance industry and is supported by international organisations. It aims to optimise and extend the use of insurance and its related risk management capabilities to build greater resilience and protection for people, communities, businesses, and public institutions that are vulnerable to disasters and their associated economic shocks.
The programme originally aimed to reach two million customers in Egypt and beyond by the end of 2020. While there have been many achievements to date, such as the extension of coverage to include the women’s immediate family members, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic created a number of logistical and practical challenges that hampered the expansion of the programme during the year.
As microfinance and microlending institutions, the local partners themselves also suffered the financial impacts of the
pandemic as their own customers struggled to repay their loans. In turn, they focused their efforts on safeguarding their core business needs rather than expanding the microinsurance arm of their business, limiting the programme’s ability to provide health coverage to more customers.
In 2020, we were involved in a number of new offshore wind farm projects, among these was the following:
For its 640-megawatt, USD 1.6 billion Yunlin offshore wind project located eight kilometres off the west coast of Taiwan, wpd was looking for a lead insurer. However, Taiwan is highly exposed to natural disasters – particularly typhoons and earthquakes – meaning that insurers must carefully manage their risk capacities. As a result, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions needed to secure a strategic partner that would enable us to offer an attractive quote as the lead insurer. Corporate Solutions was able to find that partner in-house and in 2018 joined forces with our Swiss Re Reinsurance Business Unit to offer greater combined risk capacity as well as reinsurance cover for the construction of the Yunlin offshore wind project, securing the business in 2019. Despite travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, we strengthened our relationship with wpd during the project phase through monthly phone calls in which we shared our expertise with the project team on the ground. Construction began in 2020 and, once it is completed in 2021, the Yunlin wind farm will consist of 80 wind turbines, which are expected to power approximately 605 000 households.
Swiss Re’s role as the lead insurer for the Yunlin project has further strengthened our position as one of the leading insurers of offshore wind energy projects. Not only will Swiss Re provide insurance cover for the operational phase of the wind project following its construction, but we are also the preferred insurance provider for wpd’s upcoming 350-megawatt Guanyin offshore wind project near Taipei airport, which is set to enter the construction phase in 2022.
Thanks to Magnum, Swiss Re’s automated, online life insurance underwriting platform, we are well-suited to respond to Chinese regional and national insurers’ needs. In addition to saving time and reducing operating costs, Magnum offers insurers better insight into the business they are writing. To enable the automation of underwriting decisions, years of our own expertise on the latest medical, regulatory and technical developments from Life Guide – Swiss Re’s market-leading underwriting manual – are built directly into the Magnum platform. Customers also benefit from a more flexible, personalised and swift application process that can be carried out anywhere, anytime, including through popular local platforms such as WeChat.
During the past few years, we have continued to roll out Magnum to three of China’s larger life insurance providers. We also deployed a nimbler version last year, which leverages the cloud-based platform using a more flexible hosting option, making the service easily accessible to smaller and mid-sized insurers who lack their own hosting infrastructure. Overall, Magnum enabled the processing of more than 6.3 million insurance applications across the country in 2020. We remain committed to continuously enhancing our digital platform to keep pace with fast-moving technological developments in China, ensuring that we can continue to improve customers’ access to life insurance products.
Over the last five decades, climate change and its associated impacts, such as increased precipitation and rising sea levels, have led to both increases and decreases of flood discharges in Europe. At the same time, urbanisation and increased runoff caused by more paved surfaces have put higher concentrations of people and properties in harm’s way, making flooding one of the costliest climate-related physical risks. This was particularly evident in 2002 and 2013 when severe flooding in Germany resulted in a combined USD 22 billion in losses, of which only USD 4 billion were insured. Despite greater awareness of potential flooding, the inability to effectively underwrite flood risk makes private insurers reluctant to offer coverage to homeowners located in high-risk areas.
Developed by Swiss Re, iptiQ is a digital insurance platform that makes insurance more accessible and affordable. Through its B2B2C business model, iptiQ provides partners such as insurers, insurance intermediaries and banks with transparent, customised insurance solutions. By leveraging Swiss Re’s natural catastrophe modelling expertise and pricing capabilities via our Reinsurance network, iptiQ was the only insurer capable of offering standard flood protection via the broker channel to the approximately 95 000 properties located in Zürs 4 – Germany’s highest risk flood zone where floods are expected to occur at least once every ten years. Not only did such collaboration between iptiQ and Reinsurance offer a simple, more streamlined risk assessment process giving Domcura an edge over other broker pools, it also meant that Domcura would have access to both a primary and reinsurance partner at once.
While flood risks are such that no one insurer can solve this challenge alone, our innovative approach and partnerships with local insurers mean that communities can become more resilient and recover more quickly after a storm event. Using technology, iptiQ enables its partners to distribute affordable life, health, property and casualty insurance products, extending financial protection against life’s uncertainties to a growing number of people.
iptiQ’s global growth continues Globally, iptiQ has continued to enjoy strong growth since its creation in 2016. To illustrate, iptiQ’s premiums rose from USD 211 million in 2019 to USD 371 million in 2020 and our in-force policy count
As a company committed to sustainability, we also place emphasis on specific risks that may undermine long-term value creation. We consider sustainability and emerging risks to be of particular relevance in this respect and have developed instruments to identify, assess and address them. This allows us to determine those risks we think we should avoid – because of their environmental and social impacts as well as their potential to increase losses. Furthermore, we have policies and tools in place to address cyber-related and political risks. You can find information about these on our website.
The carbon risks embedded in our core re/insurance business (ie the “liability side”) have recently become a priority. To achieve the net-zero emissions target we have set ourselves for 2050 we are developing a comprehensive carbon steering mechanism and are sharpening relevant policies of our Sustainable Business Risk Framework.
In addition to our risk management, our efforts to fulfil the Paris Pledge for Action include the development of suitable re/insurance solutions for our clients (pages 24–35), our Responsible Investing strategy (pages 44–51) and our operations (pages 60–69).
In oil and gas production, the burning of excess natural gas through flaring is an important source of CO2 emissions. With our revised oil and gas policy, we have committed to gradually shifting away from the most carbon-intensive production.
Carbon steering mechanism Our new thermal coal policy and revised oil and gas policy have been introduced as initial steps towards the development of a comprehensive carbon risk steering mechanism. This is needed to measure our carbon intensity and associated risks embedded in our re/insurance business. In 2019, we helped launch a project with peers via the CRO Forum to develop a robust carbon footprinting methodology for the quantification of these exposures.
The project, in which Swiss Re took a leading role, was completed in 2020 with the presentation of a public report (see page 55). We have made progress in applying the methodology to our direct and facultative insurance portfolios. Thus, in 2020 the weighted average carbon intensity of our direct insurance portfolio was estimated to be 120 tonnes of CO2 equivalents per million USD of revenue. Continuously measuring our carbon footprint in line with the methodology proposed by the CRO Forum will provide the basis for our carbon steering towards reaching net-zero emissions on the liability side of our business by 2050.
In a properly regulated market environment, profitable business activities create economic value. Occasionally, however, they may also have adverse effects on the environment and certain vulnerable groups. If such impacts are ignored, they may pose a threat to societies’ long-term sustainable development.
Our Sustainable Business Risk Framework is an advanced risk management instrument that allows us to identify, assess and address potential social and environmental risks associated with our transactions. This framework applies to our entire business, including all our re/ insurance transactions and investments, to the extent that we can influence their various aspects.
The CO2 intensities from the production, refining and end use of various hydrocarbons (naturally occurring compounds which form the basis of crude oil, natural gas, coal and other important energy sources) can vary substantially. Both their type (liquids vs gas) and their quality (eg heavy vs light oil) are key drivers of their value-chain CO2 intensity. Hence the decision to extract a certain hydrocarbon will set the direction for emissions occurring not only during extraction, but also during refining and end use combustion.
Another relevant factor is flaring, where excess natural gas during production is burned instead of being captured and utilised. As a result, the average valuechain CO2 emissions (kg) associated with getting one unit of energy (MJ or barrel of oil equivalent, boe) from hydrocarbons
can be much higher for some oil and gas companies than for others, depending on the quality of their oil and gas fields and on the efficiency of their production processes.
In a project with Rystad Energy, a leading energy research and business intelligence company, we have studied the valuechain CO2 intensities associated with global oil and gas production. The graph below ranks the oil and gas production (million boe) of the world’s producers with respect to their CO2 intensity (kg CO2/boe). The results show that a small proportion of companies produces hydrocarbons with a disproportionally high CO2 intensity.
Climate change mitigation will therefore be most effective if the withdrawal from oil and gas starts with the most carbonintensive production. This is reflected by the policy we have recently developed to gradually shift away from the most carbon-intensive oil and gas production.
From July 2023, we will no longer provide individual insurance covers for those oil and gas companies that are responsible for the world’s most carbon-intensive oil and gas production (top 10%).
Brochure “Swiss Re Sustainable Business Risk Framework” In 2020, we updated our publication on the Sustainable Business Risk Framework. Over 21 pages it describes the Framework and its core elements in detail.
Policies and guidelines Our Sustainable Business Risk Framework is based on the overarching principles of respecting human rights and protecting the environment, encapsulated in two umbrella policies that are valid for all our transactions. In addition, specific guidelines apply these overarching principles to eight sectors or issues in which we perceive major sustainability risks: the defence industry; oil and gas; mining; dams; animal testing; forestry, pulp and paper, and oil palm; nuclear weapons proliferation; and thermal coal.
In 2020, we further automated the SBR assessment and fully embedded it in the underwriting processes for direct and facultative transactions. The SBR Assessment in the underwriting workflow now provides our underwriters with a sensitivity rating for the human rights and environmental impacts of their transactions, and provides them with clear guidance on what to assess in further detail.
The number of SBR referrals rose from 238 to 258 in 2020. In total, we issued negative recommendations in 28 cases and positive recommendations with conditions in 57 cases (see graphs on page 41). No recommendations were escalated.
Company exclusions Each policy of our Sustainable Business Risk Framework specifies certain criteria that may lead to the exclusion of a company from both our re/insurance transactions and our investments, to the extent that such an exclusion is permissible (eg by virtue of mandatory law or internal policies) and possible (eg if existing documentation relating to such re/insurance transactions and investments provide for it). No business may be conducted with any of these companies by any part of Swiss Re while they remain on the exclusion list.
Sustainable Business Risks referred to our expert team in 2020, by sector/issue
Excluded sector and country combinations Swiss Re excludes high-risk industries in combination with countries where human rights are violated in a severe and systematic way, and where no reasonable prospect of imminent improvement can be foreseen. This measure goes further than compliance with ITCs.
Our goal is to refrain from directly underwriting risks or making investments in entities that are involved in high-risk industries in countries with a poor human rights record.
In the context of implementing our revised oil and gas policy, we held several meetings with brokers to explain our approach to avoid exposure to the world’s most carbon-intensive oil and gas production.
Mental health conditions cover a wide range, from psychological disorders such as depression to neurological ailments like dementia. Recently, the number of people diagnosed with mental health issues has been rising, and so have related healthcare costs and disability claims. For the re/ insurance industry, the task of adequately diversifying risk transfer solutions is as much in focus as are preventive approaches.
Swiss Re advocates destigmatisation as key to tackling mental health issues, favouring prevention, early intervention and continuous mental wellness management. Awareness should be raised especially on recognising mild and moderate disorders, regarding mental as well as physical health protection. Promising support services are likely to be
Internally, we maintain a mental health network and have been running several campaigns to raise awareness, strengthen our employees’ resilience and help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues (see page 77).
The SONAR process involves several integrated layers. The first is an interactive intranet platform which enables our employees to share and discuss risk notions based on trends and developments in the re/insurance landscape. This enables bottom-up identification and peer reviews.
You can learn more about one of these topics – mental health – in the case study on page 42. To share some of our key insights on these emerging risks with external audiences, we published the eighth edition of our comprehensive SONAR report in 2020 (see box on the left). On page 57 you can also find information on two special features included in the SONAR 2020 report, which focus on emerging risks associated with the journey towards net-zero emissions.
Strategic foresight Identifying and addressing emerging risks can be challenging. Their novelty and interconnectedness make it difficult to determine when a particular risk notion must be considered an emerging risk. Timing is of crucial importance. If measures to price and, eventually, exclude a particular risk are taken too early, we may not be able to offer our clients adequate re/insurance protection; if measures are taken too late, we may end up with increased loss potential.
Further information on emerging risks In addition to the SONAR 2020 report and this publication, you can find further information on selected emerging risks in our Financial Report 2020 and on our website: Financial Report 2020: Significant long-term emerging risks we consider to be particularly important for Swiss Re’s business: • Cyber risks ‒ Edge computing • Climate change ‒ Moving to a
• Special feature: Locking it up ‒ carbon removal and insurance
13% Short-term investments 39% Government bonds 27% Credit bonds 7% Equities2 3% Mortgages and other loans 7% Other investments (incl. policy loans)
We are convinced that integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into our investment portfolio makes economic sense. Our Responsible Investing strategy is based on the three cornerstones Enhancement, Inclusion and Exclusion.
Highlights among our achievements include the switch to ESG benchmarks in 2017, the selection to the PRI Leaders Group in 2019, the significant reduction in the carbon footprint of our corporate bond and listed equities portfolio since the start of measurement in 2015, and our net-zero commitment in 2019 in conjunction with co-founding the UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance.
Asset-liability management (ALM) continues to be the foundation of our investment philosophy. To meet future claims and benefits, we invest the premiums generated by our underwriting activities in assets whose cash flows match the durations and currencies of our re/insurance liabilities. Therefore, we generally invest the majority of our portfolio in higher-quality fixed income securities with stable long-term returns. At the end of 2020, such investments accounted for 69% of our total assets under management1 (see graph below).
1 Asset classes considered are government bonds, credit bonds, and mortgages and other loans 2 Includes equity securities, private equity, hedge funds and Principal Investments 2020 highlights: • Held USD 2.6 billion in green, social and sustainability bonds at the end of 2020, which is more than 50% of our 2024 target of USD 4 billion.
• Implemented our newly developed Engagement Framework in collaboration with our listed equities managers.
Through the Inclusion cornerstone of our Responsible Investing strategy, we make investments into social infrastructure, for example schools and student dorms.
The ESG rating distribution scope for the listed equities portfolio has been adjusted to include ETFs and exclude strategic holdings.
Implementing these benchmarks makes economic sense for us, as they provide downside protection while delivering better risk-adjusted returns. We regularly evaluate the performance of our ESG benchmarks against traditional benchmarks. The latest analysis is available on our website. It shows that Swiss Re's Responsible Investing approach helped to reduce downside risk amidst financial market volatility.
ESG benchmark & criteria ESG integration focused on ESG risks and opportunities
For our real estate portfolio, we benchmark our investments against GRESB, an industrydriven organisation transforming the way capital markets assess the ESG performance of real assets.1
Investment universe requiring ESG ratings BB and better, taking ALM considerations into account
Reinvestment universe of buy-and-maintain mandates restricted to ESG rating BB and better
USD 0.9bn of corporate bonds invested in green, social & sustainability bonds1
Infrastructure loans & private placements: Fossil fuel guidelines implemented & coal avoided1
Active mandates benchmarked against MSCI ESG Leaders indices and restricted to ESG rating BB and better
Infrastructure is an attractive asset class for our investment portfolio given its credit quality and inherent liquidity premium. We set a new target to increase our social and renewable infrastructure portfolio by USD 750 million within the next four years to strengthen our positive environmental and social impact. As of the end of 2020: • 23% of our infrastructure investments were allocated to renewable energy such as wind farms and solar panels.
• 23% of our infrastructure investments were allocated to social infrastructure such as hospitals, student dorms and affordable housing projects.
Furthermore, through our externally managed portfolio we predominantly invest in the Australian, UK and US real estate markets, reaching a total size of USD 2.0 billion by the end of 2020.
In the US, the investment manager’s approach to sustainability includes ESG considerations and striving for the LEED certification from the US Green Building Council.
1 Selected metrics reflecting overall project or company impact 2 Private equity KPIs’ Impact generated by selected portfolio companies during 2019
Exclusion Swiss Re’s approach to exclusion is based on our Group-wide Sustainable Business Risk Framework, which sets criteria for what Swiss Re considers acceptable business and may lead to exclusions of companies or countries from our investment universe. Detailed information is available in this report on pages 38– 41. Additionally, we consider the way companies conduct their business by screening their alignment with the ten principles of the UN Global Compact.
With our new target for investments in renewable infrastructure, we can increase our positive environmental impact while working towards achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
3% Abstained 0% Votes withheld 88% Voted with management 9% Voted against management
Our long-term objective for 2030 is to fully exit coal-related assets such as coal mining and coal-based power generation, for our listed equities and corporate bond portfolio via normal portfolio reallocations. To increase efforts to mitigate transition risks in our portfolio, we have also begun to limit investments in companies active in coal mining or coal-based power generation that are planning to expand their capacity. We therefore apply a threshold for capital expenditures above USD 100 million for coal mining expansion and one of 300 megawatts for coal-fired capacity, applicable to the listed equities and corporate bond portfolio.
Climate action We pursue an integrated Responsible Investing strategy, which also includes our climate actions. Reflecting this, we cofounded the UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance in 2019, committing to transitioning Swiss Re’s investment portfolio to net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050.
In 2020, we implemented our newly developed Engagement Framework, to support our investee companies in strengthening their business performance and achieving shared long-term goals for responsible investing.
The framework covers two engagement topics, “Improving Transparency: Disclosure of ESG Key Metrics” and “Alignment of Business Model with 1.5°C Target”. It needs to be applied to all actively listed equity mandates in order to further integrate sustainability and, in particular, climate change considerations into investment portfolios. We consider these activities to be relevant to advance the transition of the real economy, as this benefits our portfolio by further reducing the risk of assets getting stranded. Standardised disclosure will increase transparency and hence enable investors to make better-informed investment decisions.
As a founding member of the UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, we have committed to aligning our investment portfolio with the 1.5°C goal stated in the Paris Agreement by having a net-zero emissions investment portfolio by 2050. We have therefore co-led the development of the Target Setting Protocol (TSP), which allows the setting of reduction targets to be achieved by 2025. We are also represented in the Alliance’s Steering Group. Swiss Re has actively promoted the transition to net-zero emissions through the participation in WEF panels, explanatory videos and a podcast in which PRI and Swiss Re discuss the TSP.
In 2020, the investment managers of our actively listed equities portfolio started to engage with 45% of our holdings on the first topic, and with 48% on the second topic. Several of the companies we engaged with were prepared to make progress in implementing the measures we had requested. In fact, by the end of 2020, between 20% and 30% of our portfolio companies had already implemented the measures asked for under the two topics.
Knowledge sharing is another key aspect of promoting responsible investing. We offer all Swiss Re employees various internal ESG training opportunities to ensure consistent know-how across the Group. We also engage with other investors to foster greater appreciation of responsible investing as an investment approach.
We engage in regular dialogue with our stakeholders. By co-creating knowledge and sharing expertise, we help society advance effective responses to key risks and challenges.
Our re/insurance solutions help our clients and partners manage the risks they face. This in turn fosters stability and enables economic growth. However, many of today’s risks are complex and may threaten sustainable progress. To find effective, long-term responses to such risks, partners from the public and the private sector need to work together. For this reason, we attach great importance to engaging in an active dialogue with our principal stakeholders, which include: • Clients: cedents, brokers, corporates, government entities, multilateral organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
Collaboration with (inter-) governmental and academic institutions 2020 highlights: • Co-organised and held a four-part virtual event series on “Sustainability Leadership in Insurance”.
• Devoted several editions of our renowned sigma series to sustainability-related topics.
Effectively addressing sustainability challenges requires working in partnership. We engage in regular dialogue with our stakeholders to exchange insights and advance viable solutions.
We share, exchange and co-create knowledge through many channels, eg our publications, international dialogue platforms, and client and partner events, as well as cooperation with governments, nongovernmental organisations, and academic institutions. Swiss Re Institute plays a key role in our stakeholder dialogue (see box on the right).
Our focused efforts give us valuable feedback and new insights for risk management and product development, sharpening our understanding of key perils and sustainability issues. The three 2030 Sustainability Ambitions of our Group Sustainability Strategy provide an important focal point for these efforts.
Swiss Re Institute Swiss Re has long been recognised as a knowledge leader within the re/ insurance industry. We believe that a superior understanding of the risks we all face supports the Group’s vision of making the world more resilient.
Spatial finance thus enables financial service providers to add a geo-spatial layer to their risk management systems and due-diligence processes, and steer their decisions accordingly. This is an important step forward because almost half of all WHS host some sort of economic activity with potentially damaging ecological consequences. Recognising and avoiding such impacts will help preserve biodiversity.
The need to quickly move towards net-zero emissions poses a significant challenge for all players involved, changing existing risks and creating new ones for the re/insurance industry. This is why we included two special features in the 2020 edition of our yearly SONAR report, our principal means of sharing our assessment of key emerging risk trends.
“Moving to a low-carbon future” The first of the two special features discusses how re/insurance can help mitigate risks posed by the move towards net-zero emissions in four sectors (energy, construction and manufacturing, transport, forestry and agriculture). It also draws attention to some of the general obstacles (eg long-term price dynamics, competition between different innovations) and unintended consequences (eg uneven social impacts, questions of justice and fairness, political resistance) entailed by such a large-scale transformation. It will cause significant trade-offs, gains and losses which need to be adequately monitored and balanced.
“Locking it up – carbon removal and insurance” The second feature describes the different carbon removal solutions available – nature-based, technological, hybrid – and looks at some of the upsides and downsides of these approaches. For example, solutions requiring the use of natural resources (land and water) will be in competition with food and fodder production and will take time to develop. Technological solutions, on the other hand, will require less land, but large amounts of renewable energy. They are more capital-intensive and have higher operating eXpenditure.
You can find more information on SONAR on pages 42 – 43, and on our own net-zero commitments on pages 37 – 39, 50, 62 – 63.
Every year, we devote an issue of our renowned sigma series to analysing the previous year’s natural catastrophes and sharing insights we have recently gained through our research. Issue 2/2020 focused on the impact that population growth, urbanisation and economic development on the one side and climate change on the other have on expected natural catastrophe losses.
It notes that the ways in which increasing temperatures change natural catastrophe risks are not fully understood due to the short observational history of records. In fact, it could take decades to collect the necessary proof points for an exact quantification of these effects. However, failure to take immediate action could lead to climate systems reaching irreversible tipping points and possibly jeopardise insurability, especially in areas with high asset concentrations.
Jointly with the publication of this sigma issue we organised a media roundtable to discuss our research on natural catastrophes and Swiss Re’s climate strategy.
This report argues that renewable energy technologies (RETs) will experience a huge boost in the future, for three reasons: global efforts to decarbonise the economy, digitisation enabling decentralised business models and the competitive costs of production of RETs, which will likely fall further. Based on predictions by the
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread lockdowns, travel restrictions, business interruption and social distancing. Our financial strength, combined with our powerful research and data capabilities, has enabled us to support our partners during these difficult times. It is how we have been fulfilling our vision of helping to make the world more resilient.
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (BES) underpin our daily lives and many of our products and services, from water and food to countless other resources. An estimated 55% of global GDP is moderately or highly dependent on BES at present, yet a study by Swiss Re Institute reveals that a staggering one-fifth of countries globally already exhibit weakened land ecosystem services on more than one-third of their territory.
The need to maintain the strength of ecosystems has become especially apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the largest potential reservoirs of future zoonotic diseases is in the rainforests of our world, but through accelerating deforestation we are making swift inroads into these habitats. Linked with soaring globalisation and urbanisation as well as risky nutrition patterns, this is creating high-speed routes for future pandemics directly into our major cities.¹
Thus, as COVID-19 shows the potential cost of disrupting the delicate balance between humans and nature, it could become a sentinel.
Building on the success of this first cooperation, Swiss Re Institute and The BMJ partnered again in 2020, repeating the format of articles and conference. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the event had to be transformed into a fully virtual event. On 29 and 30 June, some of the most influential voices in the area of nutrition and health gathered online to discuss the biggest challenges in the field, review progress since 2018 and set the agenda for future research and policymaking.
Sessions focused on: shifting from treatment of diabetes to reversal, guidelines of salt consumption, the impact of nutrition on mental wellbeing, promoting health in the wake of COVID-19, and improving nutritional research and conflicts of interest.
In the short term, consumers of digital insurance offerings will likely continue to be young, educated people with higher levels of income. Being able to choose from a vast amount of newly developed apps, they will raise expectations on how such products are delivered. Over time, innovative digital insurance options will then become increasingly available for all customer groups, making income and education less relevant factors for purchasing decisions.
Later in 2020, Swiss Re Institute published a sigma edition on “Machine intelligence in insurance” (5/2020). This looked at a key challenge surrounding the transformation to digital insurance: the lack of quality data and data engineering which has so far prevented the insurance industry from fully harnessing advances in machine intelligence. The sigma authors argue that this is not because the data are not available, but that they are not being curated, transformed and processed adequately. Addressing this shortcoming will require a major effort to build up the necessary data architecture.
We lead by example and work to minimise the environmental impact of our operations. Bringing CO₂ emissions to net zero by 2030 is our key target.
For our core re/insurance business, climate change represents a key topic. Reflecting this, we have been focusing on our own CO2 emissions and energy consumption for many years. Our pioneering initiatives include the Greenhouse Neutral Programme and the COyou2 Programme, both of which were successfully wrapped up in 2020.
Partner initiative: Swiss Climate Foundation 2020 highlights: • Announced introduction of an ambitious triple-digit internal Carbon Steering Levy.
• Had 95% of all our Tier 1 and Tier 2 vendors ESG-assessed by the end of 2020.
The Hellisheidi geothermal power plant in Iceland is a test site for the geological storage of atmospheric CO2. We have committed to achieving net-zero emissions in our operations by 2030, which means that for every tonne of CO2 we cannot yet avoid, another tonne needs to be removed from the atmosphere.
1 tonne of CO2 avoided elsewhere 1 tonne of CO2 emitted 1 tonne of CO2 emitted
The illustration shows how the different stages of emissions management at Swiss Re have been impacting the climate balance.
It is important to note that claiming “net-zero emissions” is not the same as claiming “emission neutrality”. The former marks a clear – and necessary – step up in climate change mitigation efforts. Here’s the difference in a nutshell: • Emission neutrality: Emitters pay third parties to avoid equivalent amounts of emissions to those the emitters cannot yet avoid themselves, by purchasing carbon avoidance certificates (commonly known as “carbon offsets”).
• Net-zero emissions: Emitters pay third parties to remove equivalent amounts of emissions to those they cannot yet avoid, by purchasing carbon removal certificates (also known as “removals”).
The illustration below shows the difference between these concepts and how they have evolved at Swiss Re: We have set our internal net-zero emissions target for 2030, which is highly ambitious. It requires us to take concerted action under the motto: “Do our best, remove the rest”.
The most important step to meet these two objectives is the announcement of a triple-digit real internal carbon levy we made in 2020. You can read more about this on page 63.
In 2019, we committed to reaching net-zero emissions in our own operations by 2030. In making this major new commitment, we built on the many initiatives and achievements of our Greenhouse Neutral Programme (see pages 64 – 67), at the same time bringing our efforts to a new level of ambition.
The new ten-year carbon pricing scheme will directly support our two principal measures aimed at achieving net-zero emissions by 2030, ie “Do our best, remove the rest”. Firstly, a stringent price on carbon will help us achieve further emission cuts by incentivising concrete reduction measures, hence its name
1. Call by the UN Global Compact on companies to set internal carbon price at a minimum of USD 100 per tonne of CO2: becomes starting price of our Carbon Steering Levy 2. Today’s price of carbon removals is USD 10 – 1000 per tonne of CO2, depending on quality and technology. Swiss Re is dedicated to source high-quality carbon removals.
Key targets and achievements of our Greenhouse Neutral Programme, 2003 to 2020
• For the years 2014 – 2020, compensated a total of 494 000 tonnes of CO2e
To reduce the CO2 emissions from our own operations, we launched our Greenhouse Neutral Programme in 2003, at the time a pioneering initiative. It has combined two principal commitments: firstly, to reduce our CO2 emissions per employee (full-time equivalent, FTE), and secondly, to compensate all the remaining emissions by purchasing high-quality carbon offsets, thus making our company fully greenhouse gas neutral.
After two full commitment cycles, we wrapped up the Greenhouse Neutral Programme at the end of 2020. From 2021 onwards it will be seamlessly succeeded by the CO2NetZero Programme, through which we will implement our commitment made in 2019 to achieve net-zero emissions in our operations by 2030 (see page 62).
Overall goals and scope In the Greenhouse Neutral Programme’s first commitment cycle running from 2003 to 2013, we set increasingly ambitious targets for our operational CO2 emissions. Ultimately, we reduced them by a total of 49.3% per employee (FTE) and compensated all the remaining emissions.
After this substantial reduction, we set ourselves the target to keep CO2 emissions per employee stable at the 2013 level for the full second commitment cycle, ie until the end of 2020. In view of our expansive business strategy, especially in high growth markets, this was an ambitious goal.
For the programme’s second commitment cycle, we also expanded its scope. In addition to the three originally included emission sources of heating (Scope 1), power consumption (Scope 2) and business travel (Scope 3), we have reported emissions for copy paper use, waste generation, water use and technical gases (all Scope 3) and have fully compensated them. We also report our commuting emissions, based on biannual surveys.
Directly linked to these measures, we have defined two further quantitative targets along the way, one for our energy intensity, the other for the share of renewable energy used across the Group.
The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic also becomes apparent from the data in these tables. For example, total CO2 emissions per FTE in 2020 were just 45% of the 2019 level, resulting in a total decrease of 59.6% per FTE between 2013 and 2020. However, we had already achieved a 10% reduction of total CO2 emissions per FTE by the end of 2019, thus meeting and exceeding our target.
Complementing the data shown here, we have included a comprehensive environmental data set for the whole Greenhouse Neutral Programme from 2013 to 2020 in an appendix on pages 90 – 91. This, too, includes baseline comparisons for pre-COVID data (ie for the reporting year 2019) in addition to the current reporting year 2020.
Waste kg/FTE 186 119 69 –41.9 –36.0 –62.9 1 The figures for 2013 and 2019 have been restated due to the sale of our ReAssure business in the UK and the adjustment of how we handle renewable electricity credentials. 2 The figures for 2020 have been strongly impacted by COVID-19 and are not indicative of Swiss Re‘s future environmental performance.
–61.4 1 The figures for 2013 and 2019 have been restated due to the sale of our ReAssure business in the UK and the adjustment of how we handle renewable electricity credentials. The appendix on page 90 provides an overview of the restatement.
Using renewable power Obtaining power from renewable rather than conventional sources has been a key measure of the programme. Starting a gradual build-up in 2005, we set a target to use 100% renewable power by 2020 at all of the Group’s locations where it is available in reliable and trustworthy quality.
We reached this target in 2020, all the time adhering to our minimum standard for green power sourcing. The standard states that we seek to maximise impact by bringing new renewable assets onto the grid, known as “additionality”. It builds on the three following sourcing methods, with decreasing preference: • Direct investments in our own solar plants
To improve access to high-quality sources of renewable energy around the world, we helped launch the RE100 initiative as a founding member in 2014 (see page 66).
For the second phase of our Greenhouse Neutral Programme from 2013 until 2020, our target was to continuously reduce our energy intensity by 2% per year. At the end of 2020, the total reduction reached since 2013 was 53.4%. This figure was distorted by the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we had already achieved a reduction of 42.2% by the end of 2019.
We mainly achieved these savings by decommissioning existing office buildings and moving into more energy-efficient ones. For example, at our Zurich headquarters we achieved a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification for the newly constructed Swiss Re Next building. Our most recent move took place in 2019 in Tokyo, where our new office building possesses an energy-efficient CASBEE shell and has been fitted out according to LEED Gold standards.
In addition, substantial upgrading of existing building technologies has brought further efficiency gains (eg the whole heating, ventilation and air conditioning system at our Americas headquarters in Armonk).
Minimising business travel As a result of the substantial cuts we have achieved in CO2 emissions from power consumption and heating since 2003, business travel now easily constitutes Swiss Re’s largest emissions source. In recent years, we have taken several measures to reduce the need for business travel and to curb unnecessary business trips.
For a start, we have built up a dense network of video conferencing equipment across the Group. Recently, we enhanced these facilities with state-of-the-art technology that creates a real-time, life-size virtual meeting experience in normal meeting rooms. By the end of 2020, we had a total of 158 standard video conference facilities worldwide and 54 enhanced facilities.
Recently, we also introduced an interoperability solution which allows us to connect our video conferencing facilities with workplace-based collaboration software. This has provided our employees with fully digitised workplace equipment including video conferencing from home, which has been highly beneficial in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We continuously monitor all travel budgets and collect travel data centrally. Furthermore, in 2014 we introduced an internal carbon price on air travel, based on the “polluter pays” principle. It has allocated the costs of the Verified Emission Reductions (VERs) we need to buy to offset our CO2 emissions to the Group’s Global Functions in proportion to their respective share of air travel; previously they had been borne centrally by Group Finance.
RE100 and EP100 Established in 2014 by the Climate Group, the RE100 initiative has united the world’s most influential companies in a shared commitment to using 100% renewable power by no later than 2050. To achieve this, the RE100 initiative has encouraged policymakers and regulators at national and subnational level to make renewable energy more available. RE100 grew substantially again in 2020 and now includes more than 280 of the world’s largest companies. As a co-founder of the initiative, we reached our own RE100 target as early as 2020. www.theRE100.org
In 2016, we also signed up to the Climate Group’s EP100 initiative. This is a shared commitment by leading global companies to double their energy productivity or, in other words, to get more economic output from each unit of energy. www.theclimategroup.org/project/ ep100/
In view of this trend and in line with our commitment to achieving net-zero emissions in our operations by 2030, we have introduced an ambitious triple-digit internal carbon price and set a 30% reduction target for air travel, relative to the level of 2018 (see page 63 for details).
Finally, we promote low-carbon options for our employees’ daily commutes through mobility concepts at major office locations. Typically, they involve car sharing via our intranet, subscriptions for public bike rental services, public transportation subsidies, last-mile shuttle services, shower facilities with lockers, etc.
Some of the measures we have taken to reduce paper, water and waste include: reusable dishes and cutlery at major locations, “pull printing” (which eliminates uncollected printouts and has helped us reduce emissions from paper use by more than 80% since 2013), cloud-based collaboration and document management platforms.
Offsetting our remaining CO2 emissions Along with achieving a significant reduction of the emissions from our own operations, the second commitment of our Greenhouse Neutral Programme has been to compensate all remaining CO2 emissions for the full period between 2003 and 2020. When we launched our Greenhouse Neutral Programme in 2003, this was a pioneering concept.
Later, when mature markets had developed with labels and standards to guarantee the quality of offsets in terms of accountability, social and environmental safeguards, etc, we started to purchase our offsets from these markets. We have exclusively supported Gold Standardcertified projects, which means they have come with the same level of co-benefits as the CDCF projects we had supported before.
Furthermore, as a signatory to the UN Global Compact, we are committed to honouring all its ten principles. Amongst other things, these prohibit any sort of discrimination or the use of child or forced labour, and require that the freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining be upheld. These principles of the UN Global Compact are included in our Code of Conduct by reference and specifically cover our relationships with external service providers under the headings of human rights, labour conditions, environmental impacts and anti-corruption.
The procurement of all goods and services from external vendors is conducted in accordance with our Group Sourcing Standard, which also refers to these headings from the UN Global Compact. When selecting new products and suppliers, we examine whether they comply with these requirements as part of the overall evaluation process. We take a fresh look at existing strategic suppliers in our periodic contract reviews and visit individual suppliers to inspect them on-site. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have partnered with our vendors to collaborate virtually. Internally, we hold regular awareness training sessions with our sourcing staff.
In 2020, we were fully engaged in an integrated, risk-based approach toward sustainable supply chain management. Our internal vendor system has been augmented to include ESG assessments as part of our due-diligence process. Our collaboration with IntegrityNext and EcoVadis has allowed us to scale up and accelerate our vendor ESG assessments, helping us to make substantial progress towards reaching our goal of having all Tier 1 and Tier 2 vendors ESG-assessed. Together, these major vendors account for approximately 80% of our outsourced spending.
By the end of 2020, all Tier 1 and Tier 2 vendors were approached to participate in our ESG assessments, resulting in a completion rate of 95%. This important achievement sets the stage for the next step and core piece of our supply chain sustainability journey, the Vendor Development Programme (VDP). Its aim is to monitor and improve minimum standards within our supply chain for ESG criteria (anti-bribery and anti-corruption, environmental protection, human rights and labour, health and safety, and supply chain responsibility) as well as additional criteria for diversity. This work will be carried out in a collaborative relationship with our vendors. In 2021, we plan to run a pilot for the VDP.
The programme has been a resounding success. In the 14 years between 2007 and 2020, it paid out more than 33 000 subsidies, engaging over 15 000 employees in the process. The main product categories were home appliances, home infrastructure and mobility. If all investments are used regularly over their full lifetime, we estimate that our employees and their households will have potentially avoided over 70 000 tonnes of CO2.
But 14 years on, we have raised our own ambitions to a new level. Therefore, we have decided to let the COyou2 Programme expire at the end of 2020 and replace it with a new employee programme to be introduced in 2021. It will be designed to complement the significant business and operational initiatives we have launched to achieve our net-zero emission targets – and, in line with this, encourage our employees to follow our motto to “do our best, remove the rest” (see pages 62 – 63).
We are an organisation where diverse talents come together globally to apply fresh perspectives and knowledge to make the world more resilient.
Average tenure regular staff (in years) EMEA total 8.0 8.1 8.1
The figures for 2018 and 2019 have been restated due to the sale of our ReAssure business in the UK. Accordingly, the above table shows the number of employees excluding ReAssure employees.
Together we are a diverse group of people. We want everyone at Swiss Re to feel heard, respected and included, regardless of their background, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation or other categorisation. We draw upon our diversity to understand our clients and markets, develop smarter solutions together and help the world to rebuild, renew and move forward. In this way, we work towards our vision to make the world more resilient.
At Swiss Re, we are aware of the risk COVID-19 poses to employees’ mental health. We provided support in a variety of ways, for example by organising mental health first aid training sessions, which are outlined in more detail in the following pages. Personal resilience will remain a priority for the foreseeable future.
To read more about how Swiss Re addresses COVID-19, go to page 74 and to the 2020 Business Report, pages 23‒27.
• 13 189 people representing 121 nationalities, equalling 12 127 full-time equivalents (as of December 2020, regular staff)
• Build We understand, develop and build the capabilities to win in the future. We embrace continuous learning and growth to make each one of us more resilient. We have a strong employer brand and can attract the talent we need.
• Perform We all take responsibility and hold each other accountable for results, behaviour and integrity. We invest and spend money with an “owner” mindset. We challenge complexity and work in adaptable and cross-functional networks of teams that allow decision-making at the lowest possible level.
As part of our new Group People Strategy, we lead, we build and we perform to bring the entire organisation together as One Swiss Re.
Employee health When monitoring sickness data, we found that 2020 was an outlier, with employees recording fewer sick days compared to previous years (see graph to the right). We are committed to boosting our employees’ personal resilience and hence are investing in additional activities to support employees and the organisation. To read more about our mental health initiatives, see page 77.
Feedback from surveys showed that COVID-19 has added immense pressure, in particular to workload, impacting the way we work and, in many cases, testing our personal resilience.
During periods of lockdown, our gastronomy team in Switzerland shared recipes to encourage home cooking and offered take-away meals, as employees were unable to access our staff restaurants.
Developing our employees Our vision for the future of learning at Swiss Re includes an increased focus on an outstanding learning experience that is digital, social, accessible and commercial. We believe that learning should enable employees to deliver their best performance towards fulfilling Swiss Re’s strategy.
In 2020, we further leveraged our learning experience platform LearningOne, which was introduced in 2019. It is a comprehensive platform aimed at making the learning experience seamless by providing employees with convenient access to their training needs. There are, on average, 5 000 visits per month to the platform, where our employees have access to over 600 000 learning resources. A total of 90% of our employees have already used LearningOne at least once.
Learning hours per employee 11.0 10.8 10.4 Learning costs per employee (in USD) 513 434 247**
• 12 396 employees trained • 2 432 managers trained with an average of 11.7 hours per manager
• Average of 10.4 hours spent on training by each employee
Despite the challenges surrounding COVID-19, Swiss Re was recognised as an attractive employer through various external awards around the globe. We also saw a significant increase of 35%, on average, in new candidates in 2020 compared to 2019. Our Net Promoter Score (NPS) is compiled based on feedback that Gartner, an external service provider, collects from people who have left Swiss Re. The NPS increased by 2 points in 2020, which is 20 points above the global benchmark of ‒18. Overall, 74% of leavers rated their employment experience favourably, which is significantly above the global benchmark of 67%.
Engaging the next generation: graduates@swissre Every year, our award-winning graduates@swissre programme offers entry-level positions to university and college graduates and provides an excellent opportunity for young talents to discover the exciting world of a leading global re/insurer.
Swiss Re has a gender-neutral approach to determining pay for all our roles at all levels, and we regularly monitor this together with market practices and address concerns to ensure we continue to treat employees fairly. Progress has been made through detailed gender pay analysis, establishing a gender pay equity group as well as undertaking targeted Group investments and participating in external gender equality and pay certifications and reporting.
Being a parent at Swiss Re At Swiss Re, we understand that having children and raising them is a source of great joy and that new priorities shape day-to-day routines. We want to help our employees balance their career and family responsibilities, allowing them to always put their families first. To this effect, we offer a range of programmes and support services.
Swiss Re recognises that different people have different needs and preferences when it comes to their working patterns. We are committed to accommodating informal and formal flexible work arrangements in line with business requirements. Our Own The Way You WorkTM Programme motivates and engages highperformance teams by allowing employees decide how, when and where to carry out their tasks while considering client and team needs, and in compliance with the applicable laws, rules and regulations of their particular region.
Mental health Swiss Re is committed to supporting the wellbeing of our employees. We encourage everyone to be open about their health – both physical and mental – and work hard to overcome the stigma surrounding mental health issues. We understand that in order to make the world more resilient, our employees need to be resilient first. We provide support on many levels and aim to drive the topic even further going forward. We significantly expanded activities around mental health in 2020.
You can read more about our COyou2 Programme on page 69.
Promoting an inclusive culture At Swiss Re, we embrace and build a diverse group of people that bring together the best of multiple generations, cultures, skillsets and thinking. We can only unleash the motivation and creativity of our employees if they can be who they are and feel included. An inclusive culture is therefore key to our business success.
The Group Executive Committee (Group EC) agreed on a detailed I&D plan to be executed over the coming years.
The main elements and commitments of the new I&D plan are: • Five global I&D focus areas defined: inclusive leadership & culture; gender; LGBTI+; race and ehnicity; mental health.
• Setting clear accountability and goals • Putting clear roles and responsibilities in place to execute the strategic plan • Reviewing main people processes to ensure they are inclusive
Our Group EC has committed to increasing the representation of underrepresented groups in the organisation. Our current focus is on improving gender diversity at senior levels, as well as increasing racial and ethnic diversity in our leadership teams and the employee population.
The different backgrounds and viewpoints of my colleagues inspire me every day.
Sara Li New Partnership Manager, Life & Health North Asia, Beijing
Central to our sharpened Swiss Re Group strategy is the emphasis on bringing our entire organisation closer together as One Swiss Re, leveraging strengths across businesses as a more integrated Group.
Legislators, regulators, asset managers, shareholders and other stakeholders are increasingly looking to corporate governance as a means of improving transparency and accountability for sustainability. In particular, companies are now expected to have appropriate governance structures and governance priorities to address ESG issues. Corporate governance objectives over which boards in recent years have assumed greater oversight responsibility, such as diversity, better alignment of executive compensation and stakeholder engagement, are increasingly seen as having ESG aspects, making these topics even more important.
ESG is figuring more prominently particularly in Europe, but also in the US and in other key jurisdictions, in investment decisions and in corporate disclosure. We expect to see an increased focus on corporate disclosure, particularly around climate change. Europe is taking the lead on climate-related disclosures, and there is an emerging consensus on the need for greater standardisation of climate disclosures and performance measures.
We also expect that demonstrating leadership on ESG topics will be seen by asset managers, shareholders and others, including employees and customers, as a differentiating factor, providing advantages across a range of areas for those able to demonstrate a commitment to, and significant transparency around, ESG themes. For more information on our sustainability governance, please see page 82 and refer to the Financial Report 2020, page 82.
• 90% of employees agree their colleagues act ethically and with integrity.
• For an overview of key corporate governance highlights in 2020, see our Financial Report 2020 (pages 81 ‒ 83).
Reinsurance iptiQ3 Public Sector SolutionsCorporate Solutions 1 Only those Board committees with allocated responsibilities related to sustainability and climate change listed. 2 Dedicated sustainability and climate change roles, networks and/or committees in all Group Functions and on Business level.
3 The iptiQ Division has been in place since 1 January 2021. The Business Unit Life Capital was disbanded at the end of December 2020.
The Articles of Association define the legal and organisational framework of Swiss Re Ltd as the Group’s holding company. The Bylaws define Swiss Re’s governance framework and include the responsibilities of the BoD and the Group EC and their members. The Board Committee Charters outline the duties and responsibilities of the Board Committees and form part of the Bylaws. The Bylaws and the Board Committee Charters are not publicly available.
While the BoD is responsible for oversight, the Group EC ensures the implementation of the Group Sustainability Strategy. The Group EC members who head Swiss Re’s Group Functions, the Business Units Reinsurance and Corporate Solutions, the iptiQ Division as well as Public Sector Solutions have explicit responsibilities related to sustainability.
You can find detailed information about Swiss Re’s sustainability and climate-related governance, including a description of the responsibilities of the governing bodies, on our website.
In the course of 2020, we further enhanced the framework by defining quantitative KPIs and respective targets, which will form the basis for the 2021 performance assessment. Swiss Re will continue refining sustainability-related KPIs and targets to ensure we are reaching our ambitious sustainability commitments.
For a description of the Group API pool funding process, see our Financial Report 2020, pages 121 ‒ 122. For performance outcomes on the qualitative assessment in 2020, including sustainability aspects, see the table on pages 16 ‒ 21 in this report, as well as pages 133 ‒ 134 in our Financial Report 2020.
Our Code of Conduct (“Code”) is one of the key documents governing the management of risks and driving the culture within our company. It sets the framework and defines the basic compliance and integrity principles we adhere to globally. The Code is built on the five Swiss Re values, which guide us in making responsible decisions and achieving results using the highest ethical standards: integrity, team spirit, passion to perform, agility and client centricity.
We regularly review and update the Code to reflect changes in regulations and principles. In 2020, updates were made to clarify Swiss Re’s commitment to mitigate conduct risks by taking decisions that account for our end-customers’ best interests. The Code is supported by detailed policies and standards that document Swiss Re’s requirements in line with applicable laws and regulations. It is available to our employees in eight languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Slovak and Spanish.
Below we present additional information on some key topics in the Code: Bribery and corruption The Code addresses our position on bribery and corruption and, operationally, we have a Global Compliance Risk Framework for Anti-Bribery and Corruption (“Framework”), including policies, standards, training, assurance activities, enabling advice and tools to help manage this risk. The Framework is reviewed at least annually and updated as required. In 2020 it was updated to clarify the prohibition of giving cash and cash equivalent gifts. This year, we also performed industry benchmarking on the framework that confirmed our gift and hospitality register threshold requirements remain appropriately set in the context of our industry, regulatory requirements and risk exposure.
Data protection The Code highlights that we need to handle personal data with the greatest care and use it only for legitimate business purposes.
Our Global Framework on Data Protection, with a Global Policy and a Global Standard on Data Protection (supplemented by local Targeted Standards), addresses our commitment to protecting personal data and respecting privacy rights across our operations. Over the past few years our digital strategy has grown, resulting in increased data circulation. In 2020, a digital governance framework process was introduced to help mitigate privacy and other related risks (eg cyber and cloud amongst others) in a new fast-paced digital environment. This process helps all new digital projects follow our standards.
Our responsibility towards our business partners and society • Bribery and corruption • Data protection • Inside information • Fair competition • International trade controls and economic sanctions • Licensing and permanent establishment • Money laundering • Sustainability and human rights
Digitalisation across the re/insurance value chain is accelerating. It is expected that this will enhance the value provided to customers and help close protection gaps. Thus, it is important to actively promote digitalisation. However, the use of artificial intelligence and digital personal data also raises ethical concerns regarding fairness, inclusion, hardship and solidarity. In this context, we have started to develop our own ethical guidance to enable swift digitalisation at Swiss Re, while at the same time ensuring that we maintain customers’ trust, differentiate our services and safeguard our reputation as a leading re/insurer.
Swiss Re’s internal governance also recognises that while technology offers many business opportunities, it also creates new risks. Digital governance requirements are increasing in both number and complexity. However, fragmentation and, as a result, partially uncoordinated governance approaches make it difficult for owners of digital services to navigate these requirements.
To avoid Swiss Re having to choose between fast and compliant tech innovation, we have developed our Digital Governance Framework (DGF). It aims to balance the needs for fast business innovation and effective risk management. Designed to be comprehensive, risk-based and user-friendly, it makes requirements transparent and positions governance as a fundamental pillar of digitalisation.
Moreover, Swiss Re is working with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and other financial industry partners to create a framework for financial institutions to promote the responsible adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics (AIDA). This framework, known as Veritas, will enable financial institutions to evaluate their AIDAdriven solutions against the principles of fairness, ethics, accountability and transparency (FEAT) that MAS cocreated with the financial industry in 2018. Since fairness is a key consideration in underwriting for re/ insurers, Swiss Re is working through the Veritas consortium to focus on enhancing the fairness assessment methodology applicable to predictive underwriting for life and health insurance products.
While offering substantial benefits for end-users, the use of artificial intelligence and digital data in insurance can also raise ethical concerns. This is why we have started to develop our own ethical guidance to navigate digitalisation in a responsible way.
Within the broader Framework, we use internationally recognised data protection and privacy principles that ensure compliance with a complex and constantly changing set of laws and regulations, and we provide proper training and awareness sessions to our employees. Procedures for reporting security incidents and notifying on data breaches are also established.
We contribute thought leadership on data protection by conducting expert sessions during insurance industry events and by hosting events through Swiss Re Institute. In 2020, we hosted a Data Protection Symposium in front of a 200-person virtual audience. This year’s symposium looked toward the future of regulations including a new data ethics frontier, the need for technologies to build citizen trust into their design, digitalisation in insurance (including related new laws and trends), insights into data visualization and machine learning for actionable insights, and how behavioural economics plays a role in effective privacy policies.
Our Global Framework on Whistleblowing, which is supported by the Global Standard on Whistleblowing – updated in 2020 and available in seven languages – provides guidance on the kinds of misconduct that employees are encouraged to report, the available methods for reporting and how these reports are investigated. There are several channels (both internal and external) available for reporting alleged violations of the Code. For our employees, the options are described in the Code, the Global Standard on Whistleblowing, on our company intranet and on our externally hosted and independently operated whistleblowing hotline, which can be used anonymously (where legally permitted). Our whistleblowing hotline is also available to external reporters via our public website. The hotline includes translation services into numerous languages and is available worldwide.
All investigations of alleged Code violations involving an employee or an external contractor are handled by the Investigation Coordination Process (ICP). ICP, which is managed by the Compliance function, serves as a central coordination point across all Swiss Re offices globally that allows all investigations to be handled in a consistent and fair manner. If, following an investigation, the allegations are substantiated, ICP will issue recommendations regarding any appropriate disciplinary or non-disciplinary actions that should be taken. ICP also ensures that any such actions are applied consistently across the Group.
• The categories of ICP cases investigated in 2020 included external fraud (33%), discrimination and harassment (including bullying) (18%), internal fraud (9%), insider trading (including accidental trading within a close period) (16%) and various other Code violations (24%) – none of these other violations individually exceeded 5%.
• Of the 76 cases that were investigated, 33% were due to the actions of external actors and 67% were due to the actions of internal personnel.
• In each case, regardless of the outcome, ICP ensures that any lessons learned from the investigation are communicated within the Compliance function as well as to any relevant stakeholders. In addition, training and communications are updated, and controls and processes are adapted as necessary.
In 2017, we enhanced the mandatory training escalation process for all Groupwide Compliance eLearning sessions to enable timely completion of assignments. Employees not complying with their mandatory eLearning assignments on time without valid reasons are subject to potential disciplinary action. This process continues working effectively today. For 2020, we achieved 100% completion of all mandatory eLearning assignments including new hire and refresher training.
Policy governance A policy management tool serves as a central place for finding Swiss Re policies and standards. Eight global policies contain more detailed principles all employees have to be aware of, supporting the principles set out in the Code. Where necessary, underlying global standards are in place to provide additional detail on the specific requirements.
Training All new permanent and temporary employees joining Swiss Re must undergo mandatory eLearning training called Compliance and our Culture. The eLearning focuses on the Code and additional ethical behaviour in accordance with Swiss Re’s values. It also includes individual modules on the following compliance topics: • Anti-bribery and corruption • Anti-money laundering and terrorist financing • Conflicts of interest • Data protection • Fraud • Fair competition • Insider trading • International trade controls and economic sanctions • Licensing
Tax Transparency Report Taxes are the lifeblood of our societies. In most countries, taxes are the largest source of government revenue and a substantial amount of that burden is met from taxes levied on business. Accordingly, we are committed to paying our fair share of taxes and being transparent about what we pay and where we pay it. We are guided by international tax standards and, as evidenced by our numbers, we do not use “Low or Nil” tax rate jurisdictions for the purpose of avoiding tax.
Our Tax Transparency Report provides an overview of how we meet our tax responsibilities around the world. It describes our Tax Policy and provides an overview of our total taxes administered.
Together with our partners, we aim to achieve measurable and sustainable impacts. We support them through evidence-based grant funding and give them access to the broad expertise of Swiss Re’s employees. In this way, we strive to foster resilient societies and support Swiss Re’s sustainability objectives.
After the Swiss Re Group decided to increase its annual support to the Swiss Re Foundation by more than CHF 5 million for 2020 due to the pandemic, we quickly set up a comprehensive global COVID-19 programme. Its aim was to provide rapid and unbureaucratic support to our existing partners in 29 countries in their efforts to deal with the direct and indirect impact of the pandemic. Within three months, based on a clearly structured assessment process, we were able to support selected partners with more than 80 financial assistance packages. This support also helped them cover their running costs, which would have otherwise threatened their financial viability.
The main goals of the campaign, however, were firstly to finance the purchase of protective material our partners needed. Secondly, we wanted to provide targeted financing of their special projects in connection with the focus area Access to Health.
In addition to our global support effort, our 2020 portfolio development, totalling CHF 5 596 000, also devoted attention to our focus area natural hazards and climate risk management. We sharpened our strategy and defined approaches and goals in the selected three niches of enhancing disaster risk reduction at the community level, coastal resilience and climate-smart agriculture.
To achieve our goals in these niches we have partnered with several innovators and researchers. These individuals and organisations foster resilience by strengthening the risk management capacities of poor communities. The inhabitants of such communities are not only the most vulnerable to the impacts of disasters, environmental degradation and climate risk, but also the least well equipped to cope with them afterwards.
Notes: 1. Our three ReAssure offices in the UK were responsible for a substantial part of our CO2 footprint. In connection with the sale of ReAssure in 2020, we made two significant changes to our emissions reporting scope and calculation. Firstly, we removed the three offices, which included a large data centre, from the scope. Secondly, we switched from conventional to market-based factors because we use renewable energy at our offices in London and Folkestone.
4. As the ReAssure offices had a zero-waste policy and low water consumption, their removal from our reporting scope led to an increase of the Group‘s average figures in these categories.
5. We now include a 5% estimate for losses on all technical gas stores, whereas only actual refills were previously reported.
6. The employees who commuted to our ReAssure offices had higher-thanaverage usage rates of CO2-intensive car travel.
7. Totals are actuals before rounding, rather than the apparent sum of integers.
Carbon emissions per employee CO2e kg/FTE 5 852 5 433 5 266 2 363 –60% of which from building facilities CO2e kg/FTE 934 588 524 303 –68% of which from business travel CO2e kg/FTE 3 724 3 899 3 849 1 626 –56% of which from commuting CO2e kg/FTE 1 225 979 926 454 –63%
Scope 2 emissions (location-based) CO2e tonnes 17 260 15 541 14 827 11 327 –34% Scope 2 emissions (market-based) CO2e tonnes 3 330 2 386 1 833 709 –79%
Energy consumption Unit 2013 (baseline) 2018 2019 2020 % vs 2013
Percent renewable electricity out of total % 94% 94% 93% 100% 6% Energy consumption per employee kWh/FTE 6 753 4 547 3 906 3 146 -53% of which electricity kWh/FTE 4 715 3 394 2 926 2 314 -51% of which heating kWh/FTE 2 038 1 153 980 832 -59%
Business travel Unit 2013 (baseline) 2018 2019 2020 % vs 2013
Absolute business travel emissions CO2e tonnes 50 266 61 188 62 915 22 926 –54% of which air travel CO2e tonnes 49 926 60 921 62 657 22 826 –54% of which ground travel CO2e tonnes 339 266 258 100 –71% Total business travel emissions per employee
Distance travelled per employee km/FTE 8 489 7 774 7 752 3 893 –54% Absolute carbon emissions CO2e tonnes 14 030 13 601 13 058 6 486 –54% Carbon emissions per employee CO2e kg/FTE 1 225 979 926 454 –63%
Paper , waste, water Unit 2013 (baseline) 2018 2019 2020 % vs 2013
2 “Scope 1“ includes operational road travel, heating oil/gas, technical gas. 3 “Technical gas“ is reported as Scope 1 as Swiss Re has direct control over the majority of its fugitive emissions. Also included is a smaller amount with indirect control.
4 “Scope 2 emissions (market-based)“ UK data series corrected in 2020 to include renewable CO2 factors (previously assumed UK government kept green credentials).
5 “Renewable electricity“ figures include green electricity, self-produced (solar) as well as locally-sourced renewable energy certificates.
4 “Commuting“ figures obtained by means of biannual survey have considerable measurement uncertainty.
5 “Other Scope 3“ includes energy transmission, technical gas, paper, waste and water.
6 “Business travel“ figures include air travel, rental cars and rail, and exclude operational shuttle bus.
7 “Carbon certificate offset“ covers total absolute CO2 emissions (less commuting).
8 Dataset rebaselined in 2020 to remove ReAssure after its sale.
9 Reporting year is on a hydrological calendar year basis (ie 1 October 2019 until 30 September 2020).
We have been engaged to perform assurance procedures to provide limited assurance on the consolidated CO2 emissions reporting and Sustainability topics and sections disclosed with the Swiss Re Sustainability Report 2020 (“Sustainability Report 2020”) as well as with the Swiss Re Financial Report 2020 (“Financial Report 2020”).
Scope and subject matter Our engagement focused on the following data and information for the financial year ended 31 December 2020 disclosed in the Sustainability Report 2020 and Financial Report 2020 of Swiss Re and its consolidated subsidiaries: • The management and reporting processes with respect to the consolidated sustainability reporting as well as the control environment in relation to the aggregation of data and information; • The organisational measures and internal key controls in place at the corporate level regarding aggregation of information obtained from the subsidiaries and reporting functions; • The consolidated data and information disclosed in the Sustainability Report 2020 in the sections “Our approach to sustainability” on pages 8–23, “Creating solutions for sustainability” on pages 24–35, “Extending our risk intelligence” on pages 36–43, “Being a responsible investor” on pages 44–51, “Engaging in dialogue with our stakeholders” on pages 52–59, “Driving sustainable operations” on pages 60–69, “Engaging our people” on pages 70–79 and “Ensuring good corporate governance and compliance” on pages 80–86; • The consolidated CO2 emissions 2020 (Scope 1, 2 and 3 in adherence with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol) and environmental data 2020 in the tables of the Sustainability Report 2020 entitled “CO2 emissions per employee (full-time equivalent, FTE), Swiss Re Group” on page 65, “Underlying environmental data, Swiss Re Group” on page 65, “Operational footprint data” on pages 90–91; • The retirement of 27 250 tonnes of CO2e (CO2 equivalents) described on page 67 of the Sustainability Report 2020; • The consolidated data and information disclosed in the Financial Report 2020 in the chapter “Climate-related financial disclosures (TCFD)” in the sections “Overview” on page 150, “Climate governance” on page 151, “Climate strategy” on pages 152–167, “Climate risk management” on pages 168–171, and “Climate metrics and targets” on pages 172–179.
Our independence and quality controls We are independent of Swiss Re in accordance with the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including International Independence Standards) issued by the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA Code). We have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with the IESBA Code, which is founded on fundamental principles of integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality and professional behavior.
PricewaterhouseCoopers AG applies International Standard on Quality Control 1 and accordingly maintains a comprehensive system of quality control including documented policies and procedures regarding compliance with ethical requirements, professional standards and applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
A limited assurance engagement under ISAE 3000 (Revised) and ISAE 3410 is substantially less in scope than a reasonable assurance engagement in relation to both the risk assessment procedures, including an understanding of internal control, and the procedures performed in response to the assessed risks. Consequently, the nature, timing and extent of procedures for gathering sufficient appropriate evidence are deliberately limited relative to a reasonable assurance engagement and therefore less assurance is obtained with a limited assurance engagement than for a reasonable assurance engagement. The procedures selected depend on the assurance practitioner’s judgement.
• Review of certified emission reductions Reviewing the retirement of 27 250 tonnes of CO2e: 8 478 voluntary emission reductions (VERs) with additional Gold Standard label, 19 026 certified emission reductions (CERs) from the Community Development Carbon Fund (CDCF).
We have not conducted any work on data other than outlined in the subject matter as defined above. We believe that the evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our assurance conclusions.
Chief Risk Officer (CRO) Forum The CRO Forum is a group of professional risk managers from the insurance industry that focuses on developing and promoting industry best practices in risk management. The forum consists of Chief Risk Officers from large multinational insurance companies. Swiss Re is a member of the sustainability working group. www.thecroforum.org
ClimateWise ClimateWise helps the insurance industry to better communicate, disclose and respond to the risks and opportunities associated with the climate-risk protection gap. This is the growing divide between total economic and insured losses attributed to climate change. www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/business-action/ sustainable-finance/climatewise
FSB Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) The Financial Stability Board (FSB) is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. Its Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures has developed voluntary, consistent climate-related financial disclosures. www.fsb-tcfd.org
Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance The Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance is an international group of institutional investors delivering on the commitment to transition their investment portfolios to net-zero GHG emissions by 2050, showing united investor action to align portfolios with a 1.5°C scenario. Swiss Re is a co-founder of the Alliance. www.unepfi.org/net-zero-alliance/
Paris Pledge for Action By joining the Paris Pledge for Action, businesses, cities, civil society groups, investors, regions, trade unions and other signatories have promised to ensure that the ambition set out by the Paris Agreement is met or exceeded to limit the global temperature rise to less than 2°C. www.parispledgeforaction.org
Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI) The UNEP FI Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI) serve as a global framework for the insurance industry to address environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities. We are a member of both the PSI and the UNEP Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), a partnership between UNEP and the global financial sector to mobilise private sector finance for sustainable development. www.unepfi.org/psi/
RE100 and EP100 Led by The Climate Group, a non-profit organization that works with business and government leaders around the world to address climate change, and in partnership with CDP, RE100 is a global corporate leadership initiative bringing together influential businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity. www.theRE100.org/
swisscleantech swisscleantech is a Swiss cleantech business association. Its mission is to bring companies together that are in favour of environmentally responsible business practices. www.swisscleantech.ch
Swiss Sustainable Finance (SSF) By shaping and informing on best practice and creating supportive frameworks and tools, SSF supports its members and cooperates with other actors in order for the Swiss financial centre to achieve a leading position in sustainable finance. www.sustainablefinance.ch
UN Global Compact The UN Global Compact helps companies to do business responsibly by aligning their strategies and operations with its ten principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption; and it also helps them to take strategic actions to advance broader societal goals, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In 2019, we signed the UN Global Compact Business Ambition for 1.5°C. www.unglobalcompact.org
WEF Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders The Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders is a global network of chief executive officers who see the business benefits of bold and proactive action to ensure a smooth transition to a low-carbon and climateresilient economy. Swiss Re’s CEO Christian Mumenthaler has been Co-Chair of the Alliance since 2020. Furthermore, Swiss Re is an active member of the “WEF CEO Action Group for the European Green Deal”. www.weforum.org/projects/alliance-ofceo -climate-leaders
MSCI AAA rating, member of MSCI World ESG Leaders Index and MSCI World SRI Index
Photographs: GettyImages (Cover and pages 8, 14, 24, 28, 29, 30, 35, 36, 42, 44, 49, 68, 70, 80, 84)