Reimagining disaster insurance

Abstract How relevant is the global insurance industry in a world of more frequent and severe disasters? Insurance underpins complex modern economies. For example, mortgages and home ownership depend on viable disaster insurance. We need insurance to work. Yet, as disasters increase, disaster insurance is facing potential obsolescence. This chapter proposes a way to avoid sleepwalking into a future where viable disaster insurance can no longer be taken-for-granted. Our proposal involves an expanded role for Protection Gap Entities (PGEs), moving beyond ad hoc solutions to local protection gaps, to integration within the global system of disaster insurance. This expanded role includes deep links between financial and physical resilience, increased collaboration between the government and the private sector, and shared responsibility for protection between individuals and society. Our vision is an ecosystem that has societal protection from disaster at its heart, with insurance, reimagined, as an effective servant in that ecosystem.