In FY23 we worked to reduce our impact on the climate and the climate's impact on Aotearoa New Zealand.
This year we published our second voluntary climate-related disclosure for IAG New Zealand.
As an insurer, climate change is already impacting our business in a range of ways. Understanding the risks and opportunities arising from climate change is an important first step in responding to its inevitable impacts.
Preparing our second voluntary disclosure has progressed our understanding and management of climate risks and opportunities and provided an important steppingstone.
We evolved our approach to physical risk modelling and used scenarios that we helped develop through the Insurance Council of New Zealand (ICNZ) to identify and prioritise the key transition risks for our business and our customers.
This year’s disclosure also provides updates on how we’re tracking against our climate metrics and targets, and our progress towards measuring our Scope 3 emissions.
Credit: NZME
In May we released our third Wild Weather Tracker, a six-month analysis of insurance claims data and community research, to help people prepare for and protect themselves from wild weather.
Our third issue of the Wild Weather Tracker reported on the two major storms that caused irreplaceable losses. Altogether, the 10 storms from 1 September 2022 to 28 February 2023 contributed to a 402% increase in our insurance claims.
The Tracker also included the findings from research into New Zealanders’ thoughts about climate change and wild weather both before and after the North Island floods and Cyclone Gabrielle. Results showed that 89% of New Zealanders believe wild weather is increasing in frequency and severity, and 76% of New Zealanders agree climate change is a key contributor to wild weather.
The survey also showed that about a third of respondents don't know what to do when wild weather hits, so we included an emergency kit checklist in the Tracker to help New Zealanders prepare.
The Tracker was released with videos of our New Zealand Chief Executive, Amanda Whiting, our Executive General Manager Claims, Wayne Tippet, and Bryce Davies, our Climate Change spokesperson, who shared their insights and reflections on the recent wild weather.
Credit: NZME
38% of our corporate fleet is now hybrid or electric and we’re looking to reduce emissions at Repairhub too.
We continued to transition our IAG corporate fleet, with the number of hybrid cars increasing from 46 to 77, and the number of EVs increasing from eight to 20. In total, 38% of our fleet is now either an EV or hybrid vehicle.
Hybrid vehicles currently make up around 20% of the Repairhub courtesy car fleet and we offered our first EV courtesy car as part of our goal to transition this fleet.
Renewable electricity generation for Repairhub is also a key focus and this year we started exploring solar panel installations at Repairhub sites. These initiatives add to the great work Repairhub has undertaken from day one on sustainable practices such as creating a plastic repair division, recycling materials, energy efficient paint booths and lighting, and rainwater harvesting.
This focus is all the more important as our overall greenhouse gas emissions increased, from 2,740 tonnes CO2e in FY22 to 3,950 tonnes CO2e in FY23, due to business growth through the expansion of our Repairhub network and loosening COVID-19 restrictions leading to increased travel, vehicle use, and more ‘in office’ activity.
NZI offers practical advice to businesses as they move to electrify their fleets.
With transport making up around 20% of New Zealand’s overall greenhouse gas emissions, an increasing number of businesses are making the switch from an internal combustion engine fleet to an electric vehicle fleet. But as our NZI team knows, going green involves overcoming some initial challenges.
Seeing an opportunity to share what we’ve learned from electrifying our own corporate fleet over the last two years, the team published the NZI EV Fleet Guide in June to support other businesses.
The guide shares insights from our Risk Consulting and Fleet Risk Management teams, and other fleet managers and drivers, and covers common hurdles and concerns that might be encountered such as vehicle charging, safety and ‘range anxiety’.
The EV Fleet Guide follows on from our 2022 report on Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems, prepared with insights from our Fleet Risk Management team who work with commercial fleets across the country.
Our annual climate change poll shows that New Zealanders are increasingly concerned about climate change, yet many are still not taking action.
Results of our sixth annual climate survey show that the impacts of climate change are of increasing concern for New Zealanders, with 73% believing that they will be impacted by climate related hazards, up from 62% in 2017.
The weather events of early 2023 have focused people’s attention on the impacts of climate change, increasing the extent to which they think they will be impacted and their willingness and confidence to take action to reduce those impacts. The biggest increases are amongst those who have already been impacted.
That said, many people are not taking any action at all, with 40% of respondents not doing anything to understand the impacts of climate change, or factoring it into decisions about where to live, understanding what their local council is doing about it or taking individual steps themselves to reduce climate impacts on their homes.
The poll results also show there is growing agreement that we’re all in this together, with recognition that government, councils, business and individuals all have a role to play in both mitigating and adapting to climate change.
Credit: NZME
We launched our Net Zero Roadmap outlining the specific targets and milestones we need to meet to achieve our net zero by 2050 goal.
We refreshed our science-based targets for scope 1 and 2 emissions to align with 1.5°C of warming. Our new target is a 38% reduction by 2030 using a baseline year of FY21.
We continued to support a focus on climate change in the business community through our ongoing sponsorship of the Climate Change and Business Conference, and through our CEO’s involvement in the governance groups of both Sustainable Business Council and the Climate Leaders Coalition.
We were also proud to be part of the Expert Working Group advising the Government on the development of Managed Retreat legislation, and to help fund the Environmental Defence Society’s work on managed retreat.
In FY23 we lent a helping hand to those in need and celebrated the diversity of our communities.