November 2025
The Speakers
Jonathan Kassian Head of Research, Flood Re
Jonathan leads Flood Re’s work to measure and incentivise property-level flood resilience (PFR). Working with industry and government, his focus is on developing actionable evidence for resilience, and on nature-based solutions. He is currently leading Flood Re’s Flood Performance Certificate (FPC) work. Before Flood Re, he spent five years working on energy security and international partnerships with the UK Government, and a decade in public policy and advocacy work in Canada.
Kate Stein Director, Environmental Defense Fund
Kate leads global partnerships with the insurance industry to accelerate emissions reduction and adaptation to climate risks. Kate is also a co-founder of the Climate-Resilient Insurance Strategy Project (CRISP) which brings together experts to develop innovative ways to strengthen community resilience and make property insurance more affordable. Kate began her career as a climate journalist, reporting on the human and economic impacts of a warming world.
The Topic
Risk is something we aim to mitigate through contracts with insurance companies. The insurers protect themselves through reinsurance with other companies, spreading the financial impact of large losses across multiple entities. But what happens when the losses are very large and many people are affected at the same time? As the climate warms, an increasingly likely example of this is flooding.
Jonathan and Kate spoke about the ways in which public and private insurers and reinsurers, including Flood Re, are adjusting to rising risk creatively, by building resilience, educating and using nature-based methods. What can be done at a community level to adapt to higher risks? What can householders do to protect their property? How does collaboration among government, the insurance industry and communities build resilience and improve affordability in the face of intensifying climate change impacts?
There were plenty of good questions which Jonathan and Kate answered expertly. You can find them in the last 20 minutes of the video on YouTube. See button above.
Jonathan’s slides are here:
Speak up for our Planet 