Lloyd’s, Urban Foresight and Newcastle University
Sinopse: More than half the world’s population now lives in urban areas, up from a third in 1950. This is projected to reach two-thirds by 2050. These urban environments range from connected and sophisticated metropolises to unplanned and informal settlements. Megacities of 10m+ people will increase from 31 to 41 by 2030. These will be the economic powerhouses driving future global GDP (UN, 2018).
However, urbanisation is occurring on an uneven basis.
Driven by concentrations of productive human populations and associated economic yields, large cities now account for around 75% of global GDP, forecast to rise to over 85% by 2030 (McKinsey Global Institute, 2016). As cities continue to grow and develop, the amount of assets at risk is increasing. Yet, many cities could do more to strengthen their resilience reduce their risks, and protect their economies and populations. (UN-Habitat, 2016).
COVID-19 has sharpened the world’s attention on the capacity of cities to withstand the impacts of systemic risks such as pandemics, highlighting features that contribute to greater resilience as well as greater vulnerability. COVID-19 has also brought into focus the impacts systemic risks can have on our urban areas, with severe economic and social consequences extending across the world.
This report, published in association with Urban Foresight and Newcastle University, and commissioned before COVID-19 swept around the world, analyses the risks cities are facing and will face in the future. It also looks at how these threats will affect urban areas.
This study helps city administrators and risk managers, as well as Lloyd’s market insurers and brokers, understand the risks that will influence the design and function of cities in the coming decades. It provides insight into how these threats could be reduced and how local authorities and insurers could be working together to do so.
It helps insurers understand better the factors that can heighten or reduce a city’s vulnerability, and work with officials to provide additional risk transfer support.
The report also emphasises the role insurance can play in helping municipalities transfer risk. It looks at how insurers are planning for every class of business in the cities of the future, and what that means for new product and service development.
