Open climate and environmental risk analytics and decision making: the Global Resilience Index Initiative

January 2020 - December 2025

UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment | Insurance Development Forum | World Bank | Willis Towers Watson

We work across the Environmental Change Institute and beyond to make available the high-quality, open climate and environmental risk analytics needed by governments, financial institutions and regulators to embed resilience and sustainability into policy, plans and financing, and work with users to develop the frameworks to incorporate this robustly into decision making.

Our flagship open data initiative is our contribution to the Global Resilience Index Initiative (GRII) and hosting the Global Resilience Hub, in collaboration with the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Insurance Development Forum, the UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment (UKCGFI) and others. The GRII project provides the next generation of analytics to model the impacts of climate and environmental change across systems and supply chains.

As climate change accelerates, the stakes are getting higher for people, businesses and governments around the world. Putting globally consistent numbers behind who and what is most at risk, and how people, prosperity and the planet will be impacted is essential to guide capital investments in adaptation.

The GRII project provides the next generation of open analytics to model the impacts of climate change across systems and supply chains.

Announced at COP26 under the mandate of UN Special Envoy for Climate Action & Finance, Mark Carney, the GRII provides critical data and metrics to save lives, mobilise finance for adaptation and incentivise resilient development.

Our work builds on existing knowledge, bringing data together on a common analytical platform, and filling gaps to generate an advanced, globally-consistent view of risk that is accessible to all. We combine the insurance industry's unparalleled foresight and modelling expertise, with the best UN and scientific data, and insights from across the risk modelling community in the UK and internationally to deliver the next generation of analytics to model the impacts of climate change across systems and supply chains, and allowing users to drill down to the asset-level required for climate disclosure and risk management.

The project focuses on the risks that create the biggest impacts on people and economies, supporting and linking groups working on climate resilience across the humanitarian sector, infrastructure investment, disaster risk insurance, financial regulation and disclosure.

In June 2023, it was announced that the ECI would host the Global Resilience Hub of the GRII, in partnership with the Insurance Development Forum, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Global Earthquake Model, to help countries, financial institutions, regulators and investors, map and quantify their current and future climate and disaster risks and demonstrate the benefits of investing in resilience. The GRII contributes to the UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment (UKCGFI) and is supported by Climate Arc, UK Research and Innovation, the Insurance Development Forum, as well as in-kind support from the UKCGFI, the World Bank, FCDO and the Oxford Martin School.