July 30, 2009 - The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) is assisting the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) climate change negotiating team in finalising the AOSIS position leading up to the Copenhagen United Nations Climate Change Conference in December.

CCRIF, through staff from the Facility Supervisor, Caribbean Risk Managers Ltd, participated in a Negotiators Preparatory Meeting held in Grenada from 22 to 25 July 2009. This meeting formed part of the ongoing and intensive work of AOSIS in lobbying for enhanced global action on climate change.
 
CCRIF’s presence at this meeting was requested to review and provide recommendations to the AOSIS proposal for the creation of a Multi-window Mechanism to address loss and damage from change impacts. The CCRIF is an innovative insurance mechanism created by small island states within the Caribbean, and has been highlighted on numerous occasions as the only working model of a multi-national and parametric-based catastrophe risk pool and is considered the only viable template for creating a global risk pool such as is envisaged under the AOSIS proposal (as well as a similar one by the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative, MCII). The Facility therefore provides a tangible example of the commitment of small island states to risk management and risk reduction strategies and shows that multi-national risk-sharing schemes can operate successfully.
 
The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) is a coalition of low-lying coastal countries that share similar development challenges and concerns about the environment, especially their vulnerability to the adverse effects of global climate change. It functions primarily as an ad hoc lobby and negotiating voice for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) within the United Nations system and is particularly active in international climate change negotiations. AOSIS has established a position calling for targets that would limit global temperature rise to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels as opposed to the two degree limit set by leaders at the recent Major Economies Forum.
 
About CCRIF: CCRIF is the first multi-country risk pool in the world, and is also the first insurance instrument to successfully develop a parametric policy backed by both traditional and capital markets. It is a regional insurance fund for Caribbean governments designed to limit the financial impact of catastrophic hurricanes and earthquakes to Caribbean governments by quickly providing financial liquidity when a policy is triggered. Sixteen governments are members of the fund: Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Last year the CCRIF paid out approximately US$6.3M to the Turks and Caicos Islands in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.
 
Caribbean Risk Managers Ltd, the risk management arm of the CGM Gallagher Group - the Caribbean’s largest insurance broker, is the Facility Supervisor of the CCRIF.