The Unipol Group has organised a series of meetings and initiatives to help its customers and partners understand that climate change affects us all, and very closely.
A commitment to social responsibility is structural to the founding of the Unipol Group. For over twenty years it has reported to its stakeholders and customers on its social commitment, so it should come as no surprise that it chose to organise ten days of events on climate change, ahead of the United Nations conference in Paris, to better understand future scenarios. Ten days that concluded on 3 November with participation in Ecomondo, the exhibition dedicated to the circular and sustainable economy held every year in Rimini, through the event "Unipol per il clima".
From 26 October it was possible to view an exhibition entitled "Ambiente e clima" organised together with the Cineteca di Bologna, which made available to the public its photographic archive of the natural disasters — growing ever more severe — that have struck our country over the decades. The most important event, on 28 October, was held along with many others at the CUBO (Centro Unipol Bologna). The conference entitled "Cambiamenti climatici, industria agroalimentare e assicurazioni: un percorso comune" discussed the repercussions of global warming on the agri-food industries. Speakers included Marisa Parmigiani, Head of Sustainability at the Unipol Group, Hans Feyen, Head of SwissRe for the environmental impact of climate change on agricultural businesses, Giampiero Maracchi, Professor of Climatology at the University of Florence, Lucio Cavazzoni, President of Alce Nero, and Sergio Ginocchietti, Head of Property Claims at UnipolSai.
Today the Unipol Group is very active in combating climate change, determined to invest in prevention because "a good insurance policy covers the residual damage — that is, what cannot be avoided. But first it must do everything possible to help its customers prevent the damage," Parmigiani stated. The primary objective is to support small and medium-sized enterprises and help decision-makers understand what catastrophic risks or production losses caused by climate change they face. SMEs must be persuaded to "contain risk factors and improve the resilience of their structures." To this end, the Unipol Group has launched the Derris project, funded by the European Union through the Life funds, to support SMEs in identifying the potential risks to which they are exposed and in defining an action plan together with public administrations.
Doing this requires an "immense effort," again according to Unipol's Head of Sustainability. For Parmigiani, "one of the priority axes is that of accurate information and awareness-raising. Much more knowledge and awareness" is needed on the subject of climate change. Those who invest must, in fact, know how the Italian productive landscape is transforming and be able to respond to changes. If Italy "was the country of rice and wheat, what will its next vocation be?"
The climate conference (Cop 21), therefore, for an organisation like Unipol serves to gain greater clarity on what future scenarios will look like based on the objectives shared by the international community, in order to have the strength to adopt more stringent policies on the matter. A strength to be found also in social inclusion, because "diversity of viewpoints and multiplicity are a necessary asset for finding new solutions, impossible to reach if we continue to look to the past."