Summary

As a reinsurer, Conduit deploys its capital to provide protection to its policyholders (other (re)insurance companies) from a range of natural and man-made risks in order to generate a financial return for its shareholders.

By its nature, the (re)insurance industry is inherently exposed to climate-related risk through the potential for increased frequency and severity of climate-related claims. Socioeconomic factors are very much interrelated, influencing how events impact the insured and the effectiveness of the insurance markets overall.

The underwriting of risk is our core business and the interplay between climate and societal factors has an impact across all our lines of business: property, casualty, specialty, as well as on our investment portfolio, and our people and operations.

Conduit Re seeks to be a responsible company. Our approach to ESG is focused on maximising the positive impact we can have, while minimising the negative impact. We do this recognising that we are a relatively small, treaty focused reinsurer; hence, several steps removed from the underlying business activities we reinsure, and with a modest number of employees. The challenge is how to have outsized positive impact.

Steps that we take in our day-to-day operations have a direct, immediate, and tangible impact on our people and our local environment. Similarly, the activities of the Conduit Foundation allow immediate support to be provided for aligned causes.

Arguably, action taken to support ESG principles in our underwriting and investments will, in the longer term, have the greatest impact, but here we believe that action needs to be taken at industry level and even across industries. In these areas we act individually, through our guidelines and policies, and collectively through collaboration within industry groups, with our supply chain, and through wider engagement.

Our view is that corporate transparency is an important component of supporting environmental and social progression. Transparency allows for stakeholders to make informed decisions and limit the effectiveness of greenwashing and ‘social impact washing’.

For the 2022 year-end we produced our first ESG Report. Our ESG Report seeks to articulate what we believe and what we do. We are not afraid to lead when we need to lead, while also not spreading our efforts too thin to be impactful. We prioritise our efforts to achieve impact in what we do.

ClimateWise - Beyond the requirements of TCFD (The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures), we have committed to use ClimateWise as a reporting framework and have published our ClimateWise report from the 2021 year-end onward. We will also encourage and promote adoption of ClimateWise by others unless or until another framework supersedes it.

UN Principles for Sustainable Insurance – We will publicly report on our progress with implementing the Principles, which are intended to better understand, prevent and reduce environmental, social and governance risks, and better manage opportunities to provide quality and reliable risk protection.

Carbon neutrality – We have committed to be carbon neutral in our operations. This involves minimising - in the context of the need to operate a successful business - the carbon emissions we cause and offsetting those carbon emissions that we cannot, using high quality offsets. We recognise there is more work to do from a wider supply chain, underwriting and investments perspective, which currently we are directionally controlling via our policies and guidelines.

Single use plastic avoidance - In September 2022 Conduit became a Beyond Plastics Bermuda Champion. This was very much consistent with decisions we had made before with the main additional action relating to the avoidance of single use plastics during catered meetings. Our plastics commitment has a direct impact on our local environment and has a strong behavioural link, reinforced through informational sessions for staff and their families.

Conduit Foundation – We established the Conduit Foundation to support local causes in Bermuda aligned with our priorities and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Conduit has committed to providing funding to the Foundation each year.

Supply chain pledge – Consistent with our obligations under the Principles for Sustainable Insurance, we are inaugural signatories to the Sustainable Markets Initiative, Insurance Taskforce, Global Supply Chain Pledge. This initiative is focused on encouraging and supporting those in our supply chain on their journey to cut carbon emissions.

Beyond specific commitments we have made, Conduit Re also benefits from and supports the work of industry bodies and other not-for-profit organisations in either our industry or the wider community. For more details, please refer to our 2023 ESG report.