Compendium of nature-related insurance products and guidance for insurers and policymakers

This compendium brings together guidance and real-world examples to help understand and act on the growing intersection between nature and insurance. Compiling the outputs of the EU-funded NATURANCE project, alongside external publications from across the insurance, conservation and policy sectors, it provides a single reference point for practitioners at any stage of engagement with nature-related insurance products. The compendium is intended to lower the barrier to entry for insurers developing new products, policymakers designing enabling frameworks, investors seeking to de-risk nature-based projects, and conservation organisations exploring financial tools. It is designed for those encountering this topic for the first time, as well as practitioners looking to move from awareness to implementation.

The compendium showcases the full range of NATURANCE project deliverables, including nine Innovation Labs convened across Europe that brought together insurers, policymakers, local authorities and researchers to co-design practical solutions for specific hazards and contexts, and five supporting research deliverables addressing interconnected challenges such as equitable business models, policy reforms and improved methods for quantifying nature-based solution performance. These are complemented by external guidance from organisations including the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and The Geneva Association, which together provide strategic framing, evidence tools and implementation guidance. Annex A contains a summary of cross-cutting themes and recommendations identified from the guidance. Key observations include:

● Nature-related risks are often subject to modelling gaps. Catastrophe models often do not yet include natural assets as parameters, limiting the ability to estimate risk-reduction benefits from nature;
● The available products are primarily risk transfer mechanisms, with integrated risk reduction elements not yet fully mainstreamed. Enablers of risk reduction include underwriting incentives, parametric triggers for ecosystem repair, and community co-design approaches;
● Projects integrating nature-based solutions (NbS) often lack reliable revenue streams, which can make it difficult to fund premiums for nature-related insurance products; and
● Contract cycles may be misaligned with ecosystem recovery timescales. Potential solutions include rolling renewals, performance monitoring, and addressing landowner liability concerns.

The compendium also provides an evidence base of 21 nature-related insurance products, drawing on a digital library of 47 case studies available on the NATURANCE website. These range from parametric coral reef insurance and community-based flood schemes to carbon credit delivery coverage and premium discounts for nature-based risk reduction. To enhance usability, case studies are organised by type of insurance, the outcome of the insurance, trigger mechanism and insurance target, amongst other fields. Annex B contains the full typology of fields, including definitions, and Annex C introduces a risk-based framework that has been used to categorise case studies, aligned with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD)’s definitions of nature-related risks. Key observations include:

● Nature-related insurance product launches have grown year-on-year, accelerating since 2019. 81% of nature-related insurance products in the digital library are active, indicating sufficient viability to sustain operations, while 19% are still in the concept or design stage.
● Emerging markets are well represented in the digital library, particularly Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean which hold 46% of total case studies. Conversely, Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 6% of case studies.
● Indemnity-based triggers remain most common, covering 64% of cases. For parametric schemes 75% were established in the past three years reflecting their novelty, with the majority based in the Global South.
● 74% of products identified were designed to address risks to nature, e.g. ecosystem degradation or species extinction risk. Schemes designed to address nature-related transition risk (e.g. liability insurance for integrating nature into risk management plans) accounted for only 6% of case studies, suggesting this is an opportunity for future development.
● When mapped to the sustainable development goals (SDGs), products were found to primarily align with Climate Action (SDG 13: 81%), Life on Land (SDG 15: 62%), Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17: 57%) and Life Below Water (SDG 14: 51%).
● Explicit risk reduction elements feature in less than a third of products. Greater integration with risk transfer represents an opportunity to strengthen effectiveness and viability.

Analysis of the NATURANCE findings and the wider literature finds that a consistent picture emerges: insurance can play a far more expansive role in climate adaptation and nature protection than traditional post-disaster compensation. However, realising this potential requires collaboration across sectors, product designs that combine risk transfer with risk reduction, improved data and methods to quantify nature-related risks and risk reduction benefits, and attention to how costs and benefits are distributed.

We gratefully acknowledge the organisations and individuals that shared case studies for inclusion to this report, including UNEP FI and the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA). Note that sharing case studies does not imply that the organisation is involved in the creation or operation of that product.