Intact Financial Corporation and Sun Life Financial announced today that they will co-host a global forum on climate-resilient critical infrastructure to be held in Toronto on Sept. 18. This forum is organized by The Geneva Association, an insurance industry think tank.

Participants at the forum, called Pathways to Climate-Resilient Decarbonized Critical Infrastructure in the 21^st Century, will engage in discussions on critical infrastructure, prioritizing climate change mitigation and adaptation, challenges and opportunities for scaling up private investments in climate-resilience, and the insurance industry's role as underwriters, risk managers and investors.

Participants include Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; Joaquim Levy, Managing Director and CFO of the World Bank Group; Masamichi Kono, Deputy Secretary General of OECD; Mami Mizutori, Assistant Secretary-General and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction; Tiff Macklem, Chair of Canada's Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance and Dean of the Rotman School of Management; and Pierre Lavallée, President and CEO of the Canada Infrastructure Bank.

Other invited guests include government officials and politicians, chief investment officers and chief risk officers from the global re/insurance and financial sectors, as well as senior officials of international development banks and the United Nations.

Mobilizing private capital

"Public-Private partnerships are vital to investment in critical infrastructure such as energy, transportation and water," said Dean Connor, President & CEO of Sun Life Financial. "The required infrastructure investment is well beyond the capacity of the public sector alone. Private sector players like Sun Life are well positioned to mobilize private capital to create infrastructure that supports economic growth, job creation and quality of life, while responding to climate change."

"It is important that we work together towards a common goal – that all levels of government implement standards and building codes to encourage resilience and continue to boost infrastructure spending. Economic resilience requires climate resilience – insurable losses in Canada have more than doubled every five to 10 years since the 1980s. We need to build our communities right the first time to ensure a prosperous future for everyone," said Charles Brindamour, Chief Executive Officer of Intact Financial Corporation.