The first -ever summit “Insuring Resilient and Sustainable Cities Summit” – convened by the UN Environment’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI) Initiative and ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability – and held on 5 May in Bonn, Germany concluded with the “Bonn Ambition”.

“The Bonn Ambition”, which is an agreement between the members and stakeholders of the PSI and ICLEI, to contribue to the delivery of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aims to achieve three goals by June 2018:

  • Create “Insurance Development Goals for Cities” by converting the UN SDG 11’s targets into Insurance Development Goals that would set the long-term global agenda for the insurance industry and cities.
  • Develop city-level sustainable roadmaps to drive strategic approaches and collaborative action by insurers and local governments.
  • Organize the first-ever roundtable of insurance industry CEOs and city mayors at the June 2018 ICLEI World Congress to accelerate global and local action.

Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and Co-Patron of the 2017 Resilient Cities Congress said, “This landmark initiative by the insurance industry and cities is an excellent example of the type of ambition and leadership needed to achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement. We look forward to strengthening our collaboration with UN Environment’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance Initiative and ICLEI to accelerate the transformation to a low-emission, climate-resilient and sustainable world.”

The Summit was sponsored by Munich Re, a founding PSI signatory, and supported by other PSI signatories such as Allianz, Risk Management Solutions and supporting institution, GIZ, as well as city mayors and officials from ICLEI’s global network – from Iloilo and Honiara, to Copenhagen and Oslo.

Dr Michael Menhart, Head of Economics, Sustainability and Public Affairs at Munich Re, a PSI Board member said, “We are committed to implementing the UN Principles for Sustainable Insurance in our core business activities. By supporting the push for more resilient and sustainable cities, we can help turn the PSI into practice and make a contribution through our risk and resilience expertise. This is a great example of how the insurance industry can promote economic, social and environmental sustainability.”

See the press release as a LinkedIn post with images and useful links.

Download the PDF version.