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Climate change and development are degrading coastal ecosystems and increasing the exposure of communities to risks from flooding, erosion, and sea level rise. However, investments in coastal defenses have focused on construction of seawalls, breakwaters, and other artificial structures, while neglecting the value of reefs and wetlands as powerful natural tools for reducing coastal hazards.  Coastal habitats such as coral reefs, marshes, and mangrove forests can serve as a critical first line of defense.

Prof Michael Beck’s research is focused on rigorously quantifying the social and economic benefits of reefs and wetlands. In 2020, he was awarded the AXA Research Fund Chair on Building Coastal Resilience Naturally. This webinar will examine how we can advance nature-based solutions in insurance, investing, and disaster risk reduction, which is the focus of his AXA Chair. Prof. Beck will be discussing with expert partners from AXA’s Insurance and Investment divisions – AXA XL and AXA Investment Managers, the World Bank and the Geneva Association, the challenges of coastal risk and the opportunities to accelerate investment in ecosystems for coastal protection.
 

Webinar Participants

Marie Bogataj, Head of the AXA Research Fund & Group Foresight  - Event Host

Marie Bogataj is the Head the AXA Research Fund and the Group Foresight Teams. She started her career as an Economist at O.E.C.D. before moving to the private sector with the Boston Consulting Group. She has held Executive positions in the strategy and marketing field with major corporations such as Pinault Printemps Redoute (now Kering) and PayPal Inc. before joining AXA in 2015 as Group Digital Transformation Director. She has been leading the scientific philanthropy and foresights initiatives of the AXA Group since 2018 and is dedicated to supporting and disseminating knowledge in order to better inform public and private decision-making around the challenges and opportunities facing our planet today.

Maryam Golnaraghi Ph.D, Director of Climate Change and Environment, The Geneva Association – Moderator

During the last 20+ years, Maryam Golnaraghi has led and managed transformative multi-stakeholder climate risk initiatives in innovating risk management, finance, insurance and new technologies with significant global impacts. Working with C/suite executives and boards of the global insurance industry, institutional investors, government authorities, regulators and technologists, she mobilizes and aligns the private and public sectors to find strategies and solutions to enable scaled-transitioning to resilient net zero business models. In 2020, she was included in the list of those ‘Most Influential on Climate Change’ by InsuranceERM and was selected as the list of 100 most influential on “Resilience” by The Leaders’ Magazine. She has held senior executive and advisory positions in the private and public sectors, the United Nations and was the founder/CEO of a first-of-its kind start up in climate risk assessment. At the Geneva Association, Maryam works with the largest global insurance companies, leading strategic industry-level initiatives to boost insurance industry’s contributions as risk managers and investors to transitioning to resilience net zero economy.

Michael Beck, Research Professor and AXA Chair in Coastal Resilience at the University of California, Santa Cruz

Professor Michael W. Beck is the AXA Chair in Coastal Resilience in the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California Santa Cruz. Mike aims to reduce risks to people, property and nature in his work across science, policy and practice. Mike served for 20 years as Lead Marine Scientist at The Nature Conservancy. He has advised government agencies in the US, Germany, UK, EU, Philippines, Jamaica, and Grenada among others. He has collaborated with many global agencies and companies including the World Bank, AXA XL, Munich Re, Swiss Re, Lloyd’s of London, Risk Management Solutions, and Jacobs. Mike has authored more than 85 peer-reviewed scientific papers and numerous Op-eds in the LA Times, NY Times, CNN, The Hill, and the Miami Herald. He has been a Fulbright Fellow and Pew Marine Conservation Fellow.

Chip Cunliffe, Biodiversity Director at AXA XL

Chip Cunliffe is Director of Sustainable development at AXA XL, a division of AXA. He established and manages AXA’s Ocean Risk Initiative which works to identify innovative insurance and finance solutions to the impacts and implications of ocean-related risk. He is leading the development of a Coastal Risk Index to integrate coastal ecosystems into insurance risk models, working with partners to develop a mangrove insurance product and a separate Coastal Resilience Bond, as well as identifying insurance pathways to prevent Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. Chip co-chairs the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance that launched in 2019 to incentivise private investment and blended finance into coastal natural capital by pioneering ground-breaking products that help build resilience in vulnerable coastal regions. In 2012 Chip launched AXA’s Ocean Education programme - a curriculum-led syllabus for students aged between 7-16, designed to increase ocean literacy and capacity building around the world, and has so far reached 8.5m students.

Shade Duffy, Director of Impact Management at AXA Investment Managers

Shade is Director of Impact Management at AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM), where she leads the impact management and measurement practice for the AXA IM Alts Impact Investing Strategy and the identification of investment opportunities aligned with the strategy’s mission to empower underserved people and provide solutions that tackle climate change and protect the natural environment. Shade has more than 20 years’ experience in asset management, advising institutional investors on responsible investment, impact investing and corporate governance issues. She was previously Head of Corporate Governance, where she directed AXA Investment Managers’ investor stewardship strategy and worked with investment platforms to integrate ESG considerations across asset classes and multi-asset solutions. Shade is on the Advisory Board of the Operating Principles for Impact Management, an initiative focused on building the transparency and credibility of impact investing and providing a framework for investors to ensure that impact considerations are purposefully integrated throughout the investment lifecycle. 

Niels Holm-Nielsen, Practice Manager, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), World Bank

Niels Holm-Nielsen is the Head of the Secretariat for GFDRR, a multi-donor partnership that funds technical assistance and advisory services to improve climate and disaster risk management at country, city and community levels. He has over 10 years of experience as Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Specialist at the World Bank Group. For the past five years, he has been the World Bank’s Global Technical Lead for Resilience and DRM, a role which focuses on supporting task teams and managers across the World Bank to achieve highest possible technical quality of the services the World Bank offers its clients related to DRM. Niels joined the World Bank in 2006 as Junior Professional Officer in Middle East and North Africa Region and became Lead DRM Specialist for the Africa Region and Latin America and Caribbean region. Prior to the World Bank, Niels worked for the Inter-American Development Bank where he helped create the corporate policy on disaster risk management and establish DRM as a development practice. He holds a M.Sc. in Political Science from the University of Aarhus, Denmark.