RSA AND WWF PUBLISH BRIEFING ON EMERGING ENVIRONMENTAL AND MARINE RISK

07/16/2010

To mark World Ocean Day, leading insurer RSA and environmental organisation WWF have launched the first ¡®Emerging Risk Report¡¯ to highlight the challenges and opportunities businesses face when operating in the marine environment.

The report offers a unique insight into key emerging global marine and environmental risks facing business and how they interact with other social and economic factors to impact on commercial activities. It considers a range of risks from aquaculture and shipping to renewable energy and offers advice on how businesses can manage potential threats, capitalise on new opportunities and contribute to sustainable long-term solutions.

Key findings of the report include:

• The need for Marine risks to be considered beyond traditional boundaries, recognising the potential interaction between different industries:

• Growth in commercial use of marine resources is inevitable but can and must be managed in a sustainable way; utilising renewable energy, making vessels more energy efficient and effectively managing and safeguarding aquaculture;

• Environmental change has the potential to severely damage economic activity but can be mitigated if action is taken now;

• Businesses should be aware of the unintended results of regulatory measures designed to improve environmental conditions, if they are not carefully planned and regularly reassessed; and

• Involving and working in partnership with all stakeholders is critical to getting the right end results for both business and the environment.

The report is available for download at www.wwfrsapartners.com along with the interactive oil spill model www.wwfrsapartners.com/oil-spill-map.

The report is the first in a series of briefings that will focus on the key risks arising from environmental change. They explore new research, consider the impact of regulatory and political changes, review the implications for the insurance industry and offer practical guidance on how businesses can mitigate these risks.

RSA Director of Global Marine business, Richard Turner commented: ¡°As our global population is growing, so too is the demand on marine resources whether for fishing, resource extraction, or simply as a result of increased transportation.¡±

"It is therefore critical that businesses carry out effective management of marine risks in order to build and maintain a sustainable and profitable marine industry. With the marine environment being placed under ever-growing pressure, failure to effectively manage these risks could potentially have a radical effect on what is an already fragile ecosystems.¡±

Dax Lovegrove, Head of Business & Industry Relations at WWF said:
"It is increasingly evident that managing business risk requires exemplary environmental performance as an absolute priority. The marine environment provides essential eco-services which must be protected against oil spills, shipping, and over-fishing. Therefore, any business operating at sea will safeguard its licence to operate and secure insurance by ensuring best environmental management practices are in place."

£­ENDS£­

English full version Report (3.96MB)

Note to editors:

1. About the partnership
WWF and RSA are partnering for progress in a changing world. With climate change becoming increasingly urgent, it's more important than ever that businesses and NGOs are working together to drive smart solutions. We are teaming up to encourage RSA customers to take action on their environmental footprint while helping the insurance industry to research emerging environmental risk and adapt to climate change.

2. Environmental impact reduction
RSA underwrites business in 130 countries around the world, including personal and commercial insurance. We will work together to increase our understanding of customers' environmental impacts in connection with these products. In the long-term, the partnership will be looking at developing and promoting products that provide incentives to customers for reducing their environmental footprint ¨C for example, making their homes more energy and water efficient. We will be launching new products together during 2011.

The partnership will also look at RSA's indirect impacts, reviewing carbon emissions in the claims supply chain and investigating how to incorporate climate risk into investment and pension portfolios to encourage responsible behaviour.

Through this innovative research we will aim to drive green approaches to indirect impacts in the finance sector.

3. Adapting to changes
The partnership will seek out opportunities to increase our understanding of the impacts on society in a changing world. We will jointly research how these impacts relate to each other through developing a systemic risk framework and providing effective knowledge to help raise understanding within the insurance sector.

Together we will aim to help RSA customers adapt to and insure themselves against environmental change, whether looking at risks to shipping in the Arctic, researching the development of renewable energy in China or creating ecologically sensitive flood protection in the UK.

Visit www.wwfrsapartners.com for more information

4. About RSA
With a 300 year heritage, RSA is one of the world¡¯s leading multinational quoted insurance groups. It has the capability to write business in over 130 countries and major operations in the UK, Scandinavia, Canada, Ireland, Asia and the Middle East, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. Focusing on general insurance, it has around 23,000 employees and, in 2009, its net written premiums were ¡ê6.7bn.

Within the UK, RSA is the second largest commercial lines insurer, covering the insurance and risk management needs of a significant number of FTSE 100 companies. It has a full multi-distribution capability, writing business through brokers and corporate partners, direct and online. RSA is also one of the UK¡¯s top four personal motor and household insurers.

In December 2006, RSA became the first insurer in the UK to be carbon neutral. The company has cut its carbon footprint by half since 2000 and has offset the remainder by purchasing voluntary carbon reductions.

5. About WWF
WWF engages all kinds of business sectors in different ways to drive climate-safe business models and to accelerate moves towards a low-carbon economy. Our partnerships with many businesses seek to play a part in tackling climate change. We also have various initiatives with different business sectors looking at opportunities within low-carbon finance, carbon savings through better food consumption and production, energy services models within the power sector, and the provision of more sustainable mobility.

Media enquires:

Richard Schofield	Peter Huang
Tel: +86 (21) 3855 4818	Tel: +86 (21) 3855 4828