Allianz commits €1m to Climate Safe Homes

Allianz Insurance is investing €1 million in a new Climate Safe Homes project to promote the futureproofing of houses across the country against the effects of Ireland’s changing climate.

In a first-of-its-kind for the Irish insurance industry, Allianz is bringing together key stakeholders from across construction, engineering, architecture, academia and other associated industries to accelerate climate adaptive home building. The insurer aims to help deliver a new climate resilient home building model designed specifically to withstand changing weather patterns. As part of this, Allianz has partnered with the

Irish Green Building Council

and others to streamline the development of a home-grown solution for building and renovating sustainable, climate ready homes in Ireland.

This comes as the country continues to experience more extreme weather events, and warnings of the effect of climate change become more frequent. Irish homes generally built to retain heat and keep out rainfall are now increasingly susceptible to changes in weather patterns. Increasing temperatures, storm frequency and severity, and changing rain patterns combined with rising sea levels now mean several climate-related issues are posing a risk to homes across the island.

CLIMATE RESILIENT

As part of Allianz’s Climate Safe Homes project, experts will work together to pioneer the design for a climateresilient, three-bed semi-detached home. At the same time, research and development on the project will also ensure that climate adaptive solutions can be used in the retrofitting of Ireland’s existing housing stock.

Data from 2020 suggests that almost 70,000 Irish homes and premises are at risk of coastal flooding. Elsewhere, scenario-based studies, researching the impact of a rise in global average temperatures to 1.6°C, project that the sea level in Dublin Bay could increase by more than half a metre by 2100. Meanwhile, the immediate effects of these changing weather patterns are already being felt today, with Met Éireann provisionally noting March as the wettest in 83 years, while the record for the highest global average temperate was broken three times this July.

FUTUREPROOFING HOUSING

Geoff Sparling, Chief Customer Officer at Allianz Insurance Ireland, commented: “As a leading insurer of Irish homes and business, we at Allianz are committed to promoting the development of sustainable solutions and collaborative innovation across the financial services and home construction sectors. Climate change is already having devastating effects on homes and communities. Our Climate Safe Homes initiative offers an opportunity to both help mitigate and adapt to climate change. Futureproofing housing through modern, climate adaptive building and retrofitting is essential to ensuring we can help build a secure and sustainable future.”

Pat Barry, CEO of the Irish Green Building Council, said Ireland is currently facing a dual crisis — housing supply and climate change. “By working collaboratively through initiatives such as Climate Safe Homes with Allianz, we have the opportunity to influence the construction of thousands of climate adaptive homes for the future while also safeguarding Ireland’s existing housing stock, hence contributing to a reduction in our carbon emissions,” he added.

Visit allianz.ie/climate-safe-homes for more information.