Willis Towers Watson, a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company, today announced the acquisition of Acclimatise, the market leader in climate change adaptation advisory and analytics services, to meet growing demands from corporates, Governments and financial institutions.
Willis Towers Watson’s Climate and Resilience Hub (CRH) has expanded its scope to help clients address the challenges of climate and related Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues across physical, transition and legal liability risks. Combining the capabilities of Acclimatise and the CRH will enhance the company’s leadership in physical climate risk and integrate this with a growing range of wider client services on climate and resilience.
Acclimatise, based in the UK with teams in France, the U.S. and India, brings a wealth of complementary experience in climate adaptation to Willis Towers Watson having completed over four hundred and fifty climate adaptation consulting projects since it was founded in 2004. The company has developed a unique platform to assimilate and apply climate model and earth observation data to support risk analytics and on-line applications. This has delivered a market leading position among financial services, natural resources, development institutions and Governments across developed and emerging markets to support national planning and climate finance.
Welcoming the deal, Rowan Douglas, Head of Willis Towers Watson’s Climate and Resilience Hub, said, “By combining Acclimatise’s market leading climate modelling and adaptation capabilities with Willis Towers Watsons’s deep experience in natural catastrophe modelling, risk management, re/insurance and investment markets we have a unique range of expertise to help clients manage climate exposures, seize adaptation opportunities and build more resilient societies and economies.”
“We have long admired Acclimatise and what John Firth and Dr. Richenda Connell have built as visionary leaders since 2004. Our earlier collaboration via the Willis Research Network illustrated a shared market ambition, culture and complementary experience and relationships. This feels like a very natural step for both teams. We are all excited about meeting the resilience challenges for corporates, Governments and financial institutions in the years ahead.”
John Haley, CEO at Willis Towers Watson, said “This acquisition is very much in line with our goal to help clients navigate an increasingly complex world and to achieve climate resilience through the provision of market-leading solutions. Acclimatise’s capabilities and proven success in the area of climate risk, provide significant opportunity for us going forward. I am excited about what this means for Willis Towers Watson.
In addition, combining the skillsets and capabilities of both companies will further strengthen our company’s efforts in addressing climate resilience for wider society, for example our work with the Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment (CCRI).”
John Firth, CEO and Co-Founder of Acclimatise, said, “Climate change risk is fast becoming a central part of government, corporate and financial decision making and planning. Meeting growing client demand will require increasingly sophisticated approaches to climate risk assessment and management. This is why I’m hugely excited by the potential that Willis Towers Watson’s acquisition of Acclimatise brings. I am very proud of Acclimatise’s achievements and our staff over its sixteen-year history – from kitchen table to a market leader – and am confident that combining with the Climate and Resilience Hub is the right move to ensure we can amplify the impact of our work.”