{"id":2363,"date":"2014-03-13T16:59:43","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T16:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/?post_type=profile&p=2363"},"modified":"2025-02-12T09:05:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T09:05:26","slug":"swenja-surminski","status":"publish","type":"profile","link":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/profile\/swenja-surminski\/","title":{"rendered":"Swenja Surminski"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Swenja is a Professor in Practice at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, part of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swenja<\/path><\/svg><\/a> is a leading international expert on climate change, risk finance, adaptation and disaster resilience. Her work spans across research, practice and policy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is working across sectors and industries in her role as Managing Director Climate and Sustainability at Marsh McLennan (MMC<\/path><\/svg><\/a>), the world’s leading professional services firm in the area of risk, people and strategy. In  2022 Swenja was appointed by the UK Government to the UK Committee on Climate Change<\/path><\/svg><\/a> – serving on the adaptation committee and since 2024 on both mitigation and adaptation committees.  She is also the elected chair of the not for profit Munich Climate Insurance Initiative<\/path><\/svg><\/a>, hosted at the United Nations University in Bonn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Grantham Research Institute Swenja leads work on assessing physical climate risks and adaptation for the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action. She is also the PI for the EU’s Naturance<\/path><\/svg><\/a> project, exploring innovative insurance solutions for nature based solutions, and she leads  LSE’s contribution to the Climate Resilience Allian<\/a>ce, a multi-sectoral partnership focusing on resilience at community level in a wide range of countries around the world. Swenja has published widely on these topics, and is a contributing author to the IPCC and the EU Science for Disaster Risk Management Report, and lead author of the Second and Third UK Climate Change Risk Assessment. She co-developed the Triple Resilience Dividend<\/a> concept with the Worldbank and ODI, which is now a widely used approach to assess the co-benefits of adaptation and resilience interventions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She works closely with industry and policy makers and was appointed Visiting Academic at the Bank of England in 2015 to work on the regulator’s first report on climate change (PDF)<\/path><\/svg><\/a>. Prior to joining LSE in 2010 Swenja spent held several roles in the insurance industry working on climate and risks management, including at Munich Re, Marsh Mc Lennan and the Association of British Insurers. Swenja was a Fulbright Scholar in the US, studying Ecological Economics and International Relations at the University of New Hampshire and received a PhD in Political Science from Hamburg University for her work on ‘Climate Change and the Insurance Industry’ in 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research interests<\/h3>\n\n\n\n