Development of Standard Climate Change Risk Management Protocols for Financial Services
A Climate-Resilient Marine Spatial Plan will guide the protection and sustainable use of the Virgin Islands’ marine environment. It will define key zones for conservation, fisheries, recreation, and development—supporting climate resilience while enabling a balanced blue economy.
Introduction
The impacts of category 5 Hurricane Irma highlighted the vulnerabilities of financial services, in particular the insurance and banking sector.
The Virgin Islands instantly became a cash-only economy and remained such for several weeks following the hurricane’s strike on 6th September 2017. Banking services, however, including automatic teller machines, were not available for approximately the first 6 to 7 days due to power, security and other issues and remained limited for months.
Additionally, prolonged power and Internet outages threatened the continued functioning of the critical Financial Services (company incorporation) sector while bottlenecks in insurance adjusters to conduct property assessments created significant delays in insurance payouts and the reconstruction process.
This experience demonstrated the importance of business continuity planning for financial services and the need for development of standard climate change risk management protocols for the sector.
The Impact
This project will produce standard Climate Change Risk Management Protocols for financial services that, at minimum, include:
Natural hazard and climate change risk assessment and disclosure requirements during the loan making and insurance coverage evaluation processes;
Requirements for business continuity plans, considering climate change risks for operators in financial services, including in the insurance and banking sectors;
Requirement for a grace period for repayment of loans in the event of a catastrophic climatic event; and
Integration of climate change considerations into wider sector risk management processes.
The Protocols would be accompanied by proposed revisions to relevant legislation to give effect to them.
The Problem
Scotiabank destroyed after Hurricane Irma
The Solution
Mock up cover for publication titled: “Climate Change Risk Management Protocols for Financial Services in The Virgin Islands”
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