Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she plans to take to build resilience to climate change in developing countries through weather-indexed insurance at the Marrakech climate conference in November.

In December 2015, every G7 nation set out how they will meet a collective target to reach an additional 400 million people with risk insurance by 2020. The UK has led the way, making excellent progress in delivering on its pledges of support for Climate Risk Insurance in the past year including funding for African Risk Capacity (ARC) and Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (PCRAFI). UK Ministers have been invited to participate in side events at COP to highlight progress with the G7’s InsuResilience climate risk insurance initiative and on ARC.

Currently, just 5% of losses from natural disasters in low-income countries are covered by insurance (against around 40% in developed countries), leaving millions with nothing to rebuild their lives after disaster strikes. UK initiatives give countries and people the tools they need to get themselves back on their feet, which is firmly in our national interest.