Climate Strategy

The climate strategy forms an integral part of Swiss Life’s sustainability strategy and the “Swiss Life 2027” Group-wide programme. Swiss Life focuses on its own business behaviour, its role as an asset owner and manager and its solutions. For its sustainability and climate targets, Swiss Life therefore prioritises those areas over which it exerts direct influence and in which it can have a corresponding impact. Swiss Life is also involved in dedicated networks and associations. In addition, Swiss Life is examining the comparability of the climate targets defined under “Swiss Life 2027” with the respective national climate targets in its home markets.

Swiss Life is well aware that climate change is a global challenge that can only be solved at a global level. Swiss Life wishes to contribute to the transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy in line with the Paris Agreement. In addition, Swiss Life is addressing the increasing transparency requirements among stakeholder groups (e.g. customers, regulators, supervisory authorities, investors and employees) regarding products and services. Moreover, Swiss Life’s investments in securities, real estate and infrastructure could be affected by the physical impacts of climate change and the transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy.

Appropriate management of potential climate-related risks can mitigate or prevent negative financial impacts and/or adverse effects on stakeholder groups of relevance to the company. Swiss Life therefore aims to manage potential climate-related risks in the interests of all relevant stakeholder groups (“double materiality”), taking into account the fact that expectations may vary for each stakeholder group.

Consequently, Swiss Life is integrating sustainability and climate-related aspects into its existing risk management processes for steering its business, and is assessing the actual and potential impacts of climate-related risks and opportunities on its business, strategy and financial planning. As climate-related risks are drivers for existing risk categories, Swiss Life can build on its existing comprehensive risk management standards for the identification, assessment and appropriate management of climate-related risks and opportunities.

Information on Swiss Life’s comprehensive risk management standards is available in the “Risk Management” section. In the in the “Metrics and Targets” section a selection of supporting metrics can be found.

Summary of potential effects of climate-related risks on Swiss Life’s risk categories

Physical risks and opportunities relate to the manifestation of acute and chronic changes in climate. Acute changes are event-driven incidents including climate-related natural disasters, such as extreme precipitation or drought. Chronic changes are longer-term or gradual changes in the climate, for example the rise in temperatures, which in turn could cause a rise in the sea level or chronic heatwaves. Transition risks and opportunities relate to effects associated with the transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy, such as incisive climate policy measures, changed customer preferences or disruptive technological breakthroughs.

Depending on how the transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy progresses, the effects of climate change already in evidence today – as well as the measures taken to mitigate climate change – may change in the short, medium and long term.

Time horizons of climate-related risks and opportunities for Swiss Life

For internal analyses of climate-related risks and opportunities, Swiss Life currently relies on a definition of the short-term time horizon that goes hand in hand with the strategic planning horizon and ORSA. The medium-term time horizon is currently based on the carbon intensity reduction target for the directly held Proprietary Insurance Asset Management (PAM) real estate portfolio or more generally on the current climate policy milestones. The definition of the long-term time horizon goes together with the transaction decisions for investments with longer time horizons, such as real estate and infrastructure investments, and is geared to current climate policy developments.