Willis and the University of East Anglia launch wildfire risk partnership in response to escalating global threat
By: Communications
The University of East Anglia has launched a major new partnership with Willis, a WTW business, to advance global understanding of wildfire risk in the face of intensifying fire seasons.
The collaboration brings together UEA’s world-leading climate and fire science expertise with Willis’ global risk advisory capabilities to help insurers and policymakers respond to the growing threat wildfires pose to lives, ecosystems, and economies.
Led by Dr Matthew Jones, a leading climate scientist at UEA and co-lead of the international State of Wildfires Report, the partnership will focus on delivering cutting-edge research to better predict wildfire behaviour, assess future risks under climate change, and inform strategies for prevention and resilience.
With wildfires now rivalling the losses caused by other perils such as hurricanes, this partnership aims to deliver credible scientific insight that helps insurers and reinsurers keep pace with a rapidly changing risk landscape.
Wildfires have intensified in recent years, becoming larger, more destructive, and increasingly unpredictable.
Shifting climate conditions are expanding fire-prone areas beyond traditional hotspots and triggering more intense and destructive fires, while urban growth and rising property values are amplifying the potential for catastrophic loss.
From insured losses amounting to US$1.5 billion during Australia’s Black Summer bushfires in 2019-20 to the US$40 billion in damage caused by this year’s Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles, wildfires are no longer a secondary peril.
This collaboration will focus on helping the insurance sector understand the shifting nature of wildfire risk, including changes in fire frequency, intensity, geography, and the growing threat of urban conflagrations.
By combining Willis’ catastrophe risk expertise with the leading climate and fire science of Dr Matthew Jones at UEA, the partnership will support clients in anticipating wildfire-related losses and responding with more informed risk strategies.
Dr Jones co-leads the State of Wildfires Report, an annual initiative with an international network of fire scientists from 60 institutions covering on six continents. This report examines the causes of extreme wildfire events of the latest fire season, evaluates future wildfire risks under climate change, and identifies opportunities to minimise risk through climate action and land management practices.
"The insurance industry can no longer treat wildfire as a niche peril confined to a few known hotspots," said Dr Daniel Bannister, Weather & Climate Risks Research Lead at the Willis Research Network. "We are seeing more frequent, fast-moving fires capable of devastating urban areas and overwhelming response systems.
“As insurers grapple with the mounting human and economic toll, robust and accessible insights from cutting-edge research are needed more than ever before.
“By partnering with UEA, we aim to distil the latest research into meaningful insights that help our clients understand and manage wildfire risk, today and into the future."
Dr Jones said: “Wildfires are a growing threat that will worsen as the climate warms, and societies are increasingly feeling the brunt of their impacts worldwide.
“It is critical that our research keeps pace with the emerging threat, for example by providing better prediction and warning systems and guiding forest management and fire prevention strategies that best protect society from wildfires.
“UEA’s partnership with Willis represents a bridge between science and society and that will ensure that our research delivers real-world benefits that make communities more prepared for and resilient to wildfires.”
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