Zurich has appointed Belinda Bates to the newly created role of Senior Risk Consultant Climate Change, saying businesses recognise the need to consider and prepare for the changing environment.

The global insurer says it “firmly believes that prevention is the best form of protection” and its Climate Change Resilience Services team helps businesses identify, mitigate and adapt to current and future climate change risks.

“Risk management tools that can help businesses quantify the impact of climate change are high in demand as climate change-related risks have increased in frequency and severity,” CEO Commercial Insurance James Shea said.

This involves identifying high-risk locations under climate change scenarios and site-level assessment of natural hazard protection mechanisms, as well as developing loss estimates and proposing physical and organisational risk mitigation strategies.

Dr Bates was formerly a financial risk management consultant at EY and holds a PhD in natural hazards modelling.