The CEO of the Bermuda Business Development Agency is to promote the attributes of the island as a global climate risk finance capital at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Egypt.

David Hart will represent the BDA at COP27, which begins today in Sharm El-Sheikh – the Egyptian resort town between the desert of the Sinai Peninsula and the Red Sea – and runs through November 18.

The BDA said its presence at COP27 built upon its efforts last year in Scotland when Walter Roban, the Deputy Premier and Minister of Home Affairs – serving as chairman of the UK Overseas Territories Association at COP26 – said any push on the global stage to become a key player of climate risk financing also had to include robust efforts at home to mitigate against the impacts of climate change.

Mr Hart said: “Last year at COP26, the BDA felt we were in the right place at the right time to share Bermuda’s aspirations to serve as the climate risk finance capital of the world.

“One year on, as we continue to execute on our climate risk initiative, we look forward to conversations at COP27 with asset management leaders, entrepreneurs, tech innovators and NGOs interested in financing mechanisms to build climate resiliency, many of whom we met during our climate risk finance road shows this past year.”

The BDA will host a Bermuda climate risk finance reception on Friday at Hub Culture’s Climate Pavilion, where it will remind participants of the island’s environmental leadership as it continues to address related environmental issues at home, including the future introduction of a Marine Development Act to provide the framework for the management of the Marine Spatial Plan and to introduce the governance structure of the Blue Economy Fund as well as the investment model for the Green Energy Fund.

In addition, the BDA said, guests will hear about the strength of Bermuda’s human capital and how over recent decades the island has evolved into a globally significant property catastrophe re/insurance market protecting some of the world’s most vulnerable areas from the worst effects of climate change, including floods, hurricanes, and wildfires.

Since 1997, Bermuda’s commercial re/insurers have paid out more than half a trillion dollars to policyholders and cedants in the United States, European Union, and United Kingdom, the BDA said.

The BDA is to present its second annual Bermuda Climate Summit next June 26-27.