Willis Towers Watson has acquired Acclimatise, a provider of climate change adaptation advisory and analytics services.
The move follows the consultancy’s creation of its Climate and Resilience Hub (CRH) this year, with WTW saying that combining the capabilities of Acclimatise and the CRH “will enhance the company’s leadership in physical climate risk and integrate this with a growing range of wider client services on climate and resilience”.
Based in the UK with teams in France, India and the US, Acclimatise assimilates and applies climate model and earth observation data to support risk analytics and online applications.
Rowan Douglas, head of Willis Towers Watson’s CRH, a global cross-cutting unit, said: “By combining Acclimatise’s market leading climate modelling and adaptation capabilities with Willis Towers Watsons’s deep experience in natural catastrophe modelling, risk management, re/insurance and investment markets we have a unique range of expertise to help clients manage climate exposures, seize adaptation opportunities and build more resilient societies and economies.
“We have long admired Acclimatise and what John Firth and Dr. Richenda Connell have built as visionary leaders since 2004.”
David Hoile, senior director, investments at WTW, added: “Quantifying climate-related physical risks in investment portfolios in a robust way is challenging. Acclimatise is able to provide an integrated set of analytics on physical risk to pension funds and other investors, following best practice in risk assessment.”
John Firth, CEO and co-founder of Acclimatise, said: “Climate change risk is fast becoming a central part of government, corporate and financial decision making and planning. Meeting growing client demand will require increasingly sophisticated approaches to climate risk assessment and management.”
The CEO of WTW, John Haley, is chair of the Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment, a public-private alliance that was launched at a UN climate action summit last year.
This article was updated after publication to add the comment from David Hoile at WTW.
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