Driving climate risk insights in finance and insurance activities sector with research infrastructures and technologies

Climate change intensifies multi‑hazard risks that affect ecosystems, societies, and economies. Addressing these interconnected risks requires integrated systems, harmonized data, and cross‑sectoral collaboration. Research infrastructures (RIs) that observe climate‑ and nature‑related processes generate essential data and services for understanding climate risk determinants: hazard, exposure, and vulnerability, yet their potential remains underutilised by financial, banking, and insurance sectors that increasingly face nature‑dependent risks.

IRISCC (Integrated Research Infrastructure Services for Climate Change Risks; www.iriscc.eu) unites leading European Research Infrastructures (Ris) to provide open, standardized climate‑risk data, tools, and services through transnational and virtual access. With nearly 80 partners across natural and social sciences, IRISCC strengthens the scientific foundations for integrated climate‑risk assessment and supports the translation of RI data and tools into risk‑management landscape

We conducted a stakeholder analysis to map the current and emerging climate‑risk service landscape and to assess how IRISCC  services connect with academic, industry and decision making sectors. Survey data from IRISCC partners combined with a preliminary mapping of climate‑risk service providers, show that while strong links exist with EU‑level organizations, direct engagement with financial, banking, and insurance sectors is still very limited. This gap is critical: recent assessments by the European Central Bank indicate that around 72% of European companies depend heavily on at least one ecosystem service, underscoring the financial sector’s exposure to nature degradation (Elderson F.2023, Network for Greening the Financial System NGFS, 2022)

Our findings highlight significant opportunities to embed scientific communities more efficiently, to enhance RI usage, harmonized datasets, and analytical tools into multi‑hazard climate‑risk services. Strengthening these connections can support more robust risk detection, prevention, and early‑warning capabilities, particularly for nature‑dependent industries.

This presentation outlines the key findings from stakeholder analysis, identifies gaps in the current service landscape related to climate risks, and open the potential of IRISCC’s services  to contribute to the needs of financial and insurance sectors. By fostering new collaborations and co‑created solutions, IRISCC aims to advance a more holistic, interoperable, and science‑based climate‑risk ecosystem in Europe.

IRISCC is funded by the European Union (project number 101131261). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

 

Elderson F. The economy and banks need nature to survive. European Central Bank. Published June 8, 2023. Accessed January 15, 2026. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/blog/date/2023/html/ecb.blog230608~5cffb7c349.en.html

Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS). Nature‑related risks. Published 2022. Accessed January 15, 2026. https://www.ngfs.net/en/what-we-do/nature-related-risks