25 – 26 March 2025 | University of Leeds
CGFI and partners held a two-day workshop to discuss and debate two key challenges – annual-to-decadal predictions of weather and climate perils; and European windstorm risk in a changing climate – with leading experts and key players from the insurance sector.
Following on from our events in March 2024 and January 2025, the UK CGFI Leeds Innovation Hub, in collaboration with the Lighthill Risk Network, Oasis LMF, Journal of Catastrophe Risk and Resilience, and Maximum Information, hosted an in-person two-day workshop.
See key takeaways here and watch our summary video below:
About the Workshop
CONTEXT
The insurance industry has managed risk from climate and weather perils for centuries. However, with the advent and rapid sophistication of explicit catastrophe risk modelling in the past few decades, coupled with technological and business driven evolution of the private risk transfer market in recent years, many new opportunities for enhancing views of climate and weather peril risks are being uncovered.
For example, alternative capital flows into the traditional insurance market have encouraged many risk carriers to implement time-varying views of risk over multiple timescales, whether that be adjusting portfolios in advance of an upcoming ENSO phase, or adjusting strategy in the face of a warming climate.
Further, these evolutions are driving increased collaboration between academia and insurance based risk practitioners, allowing re-formulation of foundational catastrophe risk management questions, such as how to decompose views of risk to their constituent components (whether hazard, vulnerability or financial/market-based in nature), and how these component parts may be most optimally valuable both in isolation and in tandem.
This workshop is an opportunity for industry experts to explore how to take the latest research into application within the insurance industry, and for academic experts to understand where their research may have tangible impact in climate and weather risk.
SPEAKERS

Prof Iain
Clacher
UK CGFI
University of Leeds

Prof Jason
Lowe OBE
UK CGFI
Met Office

Dr Tom
Philp
Maximum Information

Dr Kelsey
Mulder
Liberty Mutual Insurance

Prof Len
Shaffrey
National Oceanography Centre

Dickie
Whitaker
Oasis LMF
The Lighthill Risk Network
AGENDA - DAY 1
12:30 | Registration, Refreshments and Networking | |
13:30 | Welcome | Prof Iain Clacher |
Opening Statement | Dr Tom Philp | |
Challenge: Annual-to-Decadal Predictions of Weather and Climate Perils | Dr Adrian Champion Prof Jason Lowe OBE | |
Working Groups | ||
Working Groups Presentations | ||
Closing Remarks - reflections and next steps | ||
19:00 | End of Day 1 | |
19:30 | Networking Dinner |
AGENDA - DAY 2
09:00 (was 09:15) | Registration, Refreshments and Networking | ||
09:15 (was 09:45) | Welcome | Dickie Whitaker | |
Challenge: European Windstorm Risk in a Changing Climate | Dr Kelsey Mulder Prof Len Shaffrey Dr Richard Dixon | ||
Working Groups | |||
Lunch | |||
Working Groups cont. | |||
Working Groups Presentations | |||
Closing Remarks - relections and next steps | |||
15:50 (was 15:45) | End of Day 2 |