What is the purpose of the PIISA project?

The PIISA project is a Horizon Europe mission. Currently, we have not adapted enough to climate change to control the damages. In other words, the gap between climate adaptation and climate risks is too big. The aim of this project is to use new insurance concepts to help closing this gap.

How is the PIISA project set up?

A total of 12 partners from 8 countries are working in the project. CAS develops new insurance concepts in the urban sector. Other partners in the project focus on the agricultural or forestry sectors. Literature and model studies are carried out for this purpose. In addition, the insurance concepts are tested and elaborated in pilots. This is done first in a specific European region. It will then be examined whether this concept can also be applied in the other European regions.

What is our role in the project?

Our role in the project is to examine what non-life insurers in Europe can do to increase the success of nature-based adaptation solutions in the urban sector. Because even though it is clear that these solutions offer many benefits, they are not yet standard practice in European cities. This is because the threshold for residents and businesses to use these solutions is often too high, for example because they think that construction or maintenance is too expensive. And insurers themselves are reluctant to invest in large-scale measures because they fear losing their competitive position. However, there are already insurers in the Netherlands looking for ways to increase their customers’ choice of nature-based adaptation solutions. One of these insurers is Interpolis. Interpolis offers its customers green roofs, including a roof inspection and installation.

What is our approach?

Together with the Vrije Universiteit’s Institute for Environmental Studies (VU-IVM), we are investigating what non-life insurers can do in their own organisation and towards their customers to increase the success of nature-based adaptation measures. A good example is the successful campaign by which Interpolis encourages its customers to green their roofs. We analyse what exactly makes this action a success. We are also investigating which factors stimulate customers to install a green roof and which factors hinder them from doing so. CAS supervises this process and VU-IVM develops choice experiments for this purpose. These should provide insight into the considerations people make whether or not to install a green roof. Finally, we investigate how to make nature-based adaptation measures even more successful and how other insurers in the Netherlands and Europe can use Interpolis’ action. We will incorporate the results of the project into advice and practical tools for insurers.

In the first year of PIISA, we conducted interviews with eight Dutch non-life insurers. This resulted in a short report listing the thresholds and opportunities for nature-based adaptation measures in insurance products. Lisetta and Simone were also interviewed about this by Finnish partner Tyrsky Consulting. Curious? Download the report below or click through to the interview.

Download the report

Read the interview

More information

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