Togo Data Could Reduce Impact of Future Flood Events

As regular readers know the COP28 Private Jet Festival is currently taking place in Dubai, where the super wealthy, plus NGOs like the WEF, OECD, EU, UN, Blair Institute, Gates Foundation and more will busy thinking of ways to raise more green taxation, and restrict car usage, meat consumption and overseas travel for the poorest in society, so that Net Zero may be attained. 

One theme from previous COP events is the emergence of 15 minute super-cities and their resilience in regards to Cat events; floods, famine, earthquakes, power outages and so on. Anything that can forewarn people when flood events are likely, plus track the damage in real-time, then authorise payouts, is obviously a major benefit for insurers and consumers. So this is an interesting experiment in Togo’s capital Lome, which will provide useful data for insurers, via Howden and AXA Climate.

Here’s the word;

AXA Climate, part of global insurer AXA Group, London-based broker Howden and Togo-based non-governmental organisation Pionners en Action pour le Développement Intégré à l’Environnement PADIE will be implementing the project for Togo’s fourth largest city including the capital city, Lomé.

This project aims to establish predetermined financing in the caser of a disaster, support climate change adaptation in these cities, and address upcoming trends in the coming years in West Africa: increasing droughts, intense rainfall, and floods (IPCC report). West Africa and Togo are highly vulnerable to devastating floods, which affected 5 million people and 19 countries in 2022, according to the World Food Program (WFP).

PARAMETRIC SETTLEMENTS

AXA Climate, London-based broker Howden and Togo-based non-governmental organisation PADIE will be implementing the project for Togo’s fourth largest city Kloto 1 and key flood hot spots in the capital city Lomé – Golfe 1 and Golfe 7.

To be co-funded by the InsuResilience Solutions Fund (ISF), the project will assess the most cost-efficient flood adaptation measures and set up insurance programs for the three cities, which count over 700,000 inhabitants. For the implementation of this parametric insurance, several data sources will be tested, including local and satellite data. These sources will enable the quick calculation of the flooded area and water depth per pixel (with an insured value per pixel).

Furthermore, this mechanism will provide prompt compensation and financial support to municipalities in the event of a flood disaster. It will also activate a predefined contingency plan to support disaster response and assist vulnerable affected populations.

An initiative co-built with local authorities

Co-designing the project with local authorities is central to the consortium’s approach. “A series of workshops will be organized with municipal policymakers, technical experts and the community to identify precisely the priority adaptation measures and contingency actions that insurance payouts could finance,” explains Emile Atigaku, Executive Director of PADIE.

The project has been driven by Winny Dogbatse, Mayor of Kloto 1 and President of the Convention of Sub-Saharan African Mayors for Climate (CoM-SSA) which counts 367 African cities as members. “I’m delighted to act for the resilience of African cities and to promote this innovative project in Africa and beyond at COP28,” says Mayor Dogbatse.

The consortium is also supported by Lehady Soglo, former mayor of Cotonou, who has critical experience in building resilience in flood-prone West African cities.

Howden will co-fund $100,000 of insurance premiums for the first year of the scheme.

The approval of the ISF co-funding for the Togo project will be formally announced on Saturday, December 2, at 12am, at the Togo Pavilion at COP28, in the presence of the three mayors, the Ministry of Environment of Togo, the ISF and project managers. The project is set to launch in early 2024.

Karina Whalley, Head of Public Sector at AXA Climate: “As a committed climate insurer, the science of adaptation is really part of our DNA. We are honoured to help these cities be better prepared for future floods.”

Eliot Pernet, Project lead at AXA Climate: “We are fortunate to have a strong relationship with the three cities, which will allow this project to be locally-led and ambitious.”