Jackie Bennett, chair of the Bank of England’s Residential Property Forum, has joined Climate X to help the UK housing market prepare for climate change.
Climate X has created a digital 'twin' of the Earth, Spectra, which projects how extreme weather events fueled by the changing climate - including heatwaves, wildfires, flooding and landslides - can impact properties, infrastructure or assets under different emissions scenarios.
Spectra delivers location-specific risk ratings, Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ratings for transition risk and climate-adjusted loss estimates between now and 2100. It does this under multiple climate emission pathways via a SaaS platform or integrated API.
Bennett, who also worked as director of mortgages at UK Finance, joins Climate X as an advisor in a bid to help financial and real estate firms navigate the changing climate with tools needed to anticipate climate risks more effectively and build resilience in their front and back books.
Bennett has a 20-year career history in the mortgage and housing industry and first witnessed the impact of extreme weather over 20 years ago while working with the Association of British Insurers during the floods of 2000-01. The flood had a devastating impact on insurers and homeowners, with over 10,000 properties damaged at an estimated cost of £1bn.
Says Bennett: “Foreseeable harm from climate change will have a fundamental impact on mortgages and housing over the coming years - and robust climate risk data and modelling will become vital to these industries’ resilience."