The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries has published a policy statement recognising the social, economic and financial risks posed by biodiversity loss.

In addition to the global and systemic risks presented by biodiversity loss, the organisation has flagged the significant implications for the health and longevity of the global population.

Nick Spencer, former chair of the IFoA Sustainability Board and author of the biodiversity policy statement, said: “There is global recognition that we need to act now to reduce our biodiversity and nature loss in order to avoid irreversible consequences. The actuarial profession is well placed to help businesses and other organisations understand, assess and help mitigate risk.

“This starts with giving our members the right resources and we have recently created a series of blogs and a guide for actuaries on biodiversity and nature-related risk. Earlier this month, we published a report which found that economic models underpinning climate scenario modelling in financial services do not always reflect the threat climate change poses to our planet and society. We have been highlighting the importance of these risks for some time through the work of the IFoA’s Sustainability Board and the Biodiversity Working Party. Today’s policy statement lays out our commitment to support biodiversity and we will be accelerating our work in this area because time is not on our side.”

IFoA's biodiversity policy commitments (Source: IFoA)

The policy statement commits IFoA to the following

• Advocating for the development of effective policy frameworks worldwide and methods for managing biodiversity risk in the financial services sector

• Using the actuarial skill set and influence to help equip the wider global financial services markets to fully incorporate biodiversity risk

• Supporting actuaries in their understanding of biodiversity risk through education resources and thought leadership content including webinars and blogs

• Advocating for better disclosure of consistent and robust information about biodiversity risk across the financial services sector

• Supporting collaborations between IFoA members and other organisations to help develop and align financial systems with a just, sustainable economy that manages biodiversity risk

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