Insurance Europe has today published its response to a consultation by the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) on its pilot dashboard for insurance protection gaps for natural catastrophes.
While EIOPA’s aim of providing transparent information on natural catastrophe protection gaps is welcome, its proposals require amendments to properly account for individual circumstances across member states. Because this is currently not the case, the dashboard will likely be misleading and not provide a good basis for policy decisions.
EIOPA’s proposals also require further amendments to ensure that prevention is adequately reflected in the dashboard. In general, it is important to keep in mind that while insurers can play a vital role in adaptation and mitigation, insurance cover is simply a way to provide financial compensation for an event, and is not a substitute for effective prevention measures being enacted. Maintaining, or indeed improving, the affordability and insurability of insurance against climate and weather-related risks cannot be achieved without adequate prevention measures being taken.
Insurance Europe stands ready to work together with EIOPA to make this important project a success.