Climate Risk Advisory Needs an Upgrade

In October 2023, a major reinsurer asked three leading consultancies to assess climate risk exposure across their North American property book. Six months and $2.3 million later, they received three reports with fundamentally different conclusions about the same portfolio.

The disconnect? One firm leaned heavily on catastrophe modeling, another prioritized regulatory compliance, and the third focused on transition risk scenarios. None integrated all three lenses. None could, because each firm was limited to whoever happened to be on staff that quarter.

This isn't an isolated failure. It's a structural problem with how climate risk advisory works today.

Traditional consulting firms are operating with a 20th-century model in a 21st-century crisis. They hire generalists, train them on proprietary methodologies, and deploy them on whatever comes through the door. When a climate risk engagement arrives, they assemble whoever is available, not whoever is best qualified. The result is expensive, slow, and increasingly inadequate for the complexity we're facing.

It's time for an upgrade.

Climate risk advisory today suffers from three critical flaws that compound each other.

First, traditional firms are too slow. The typical engagement model involves extensive scoping calls, proposal development, team assembly, onboarding, and then—finally—analysis. By the time deliverables arrive, the regulatory landscape has shifted, another record-breaking disaster has rewritten risk models, or the client's strategic priorities have evolved. I recently watched a major P&C carrier receive climate risk recommendations based on IPCC scenarios that were already superseded by newer projections published during the engagement.

Second, they're structurally siloed. Most consulting firms organize around practice areas—insurance, climate, finance, risk management—with limited cross-pollination. Climate risk doesn't respect these boundaries. A comprehensive assessment requires expertise in climate science, catastrophe modeling, actuarial analysis, financial instrument structuring, regulatory compliance, and real estate valuation. No single firm houses world-class expertise across all these domains, but the traditional model demands they pretend to.

Third, the economics don't work. Large consultancies carry enormous overhead: partner compensation, real estate, benefits, training programs, business development, technology platforms. These costs get passed to clients, who pay premium rates for generalists when they need specialists. A catastrophe modeler at a Big Four firm might bill at $400/hour despite having less experience than an independent expert who would charge $250/hour—simply because of the corporate wrapper around them.

Why This Moment Demands Something Different

Climate change is accelerating faster than institutional adaptation. We're now regularly seeing "500-year events" occur twice in a decade. Hurricane Ian caused $112 billion in damages in 2022. The 2023 wildfire season in Canada produced smoke that blanketed the Eastern United States. European floods. Australian bushfires. Heat domes. Atmospheric rivers. The language of climate risk is being rewritten in real-time.

Meanwhile, disaster finance is becoming more sophisticated and more complex. Parametric insurance, catastrophe bonds, industry loss warranties, resilience bonds, forecast-based financing—these instruments require specialized knowledge to structure correctly. A poorly designed parametric trigger can leave a client unprotected despite paying premiums for years. The basis risk alone demands expertise that few traditional consultants possess.

Regulatory requirements are multiplying across jurisdictions. The SEC's climate disclosure rules, the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the TCFD framework, stress testing requirements from financial regulators—each adds layers of complexity that require specialized knowledge. Compliance isn't enough; clients need strategic guidance on navigating overlapping and sometimes contradictory requirements.

The traditional consulting model wasn't built for this level of complexity, pace, or specialization. We need something more agile, more expert, and more integrated.

The Integrator/Orchestrator Model: A Better Way Forward

Here's what we're building instead: a network-based model where we serve as integrators and orchestrators rather than trying to house all expertise in-house.

The core concept is simple: maintain a curated network of deep specialists across every dimension of climate risk and disaster finance. When a client engagement requires catastrophe modeling expertise, we bring in someone who spent fifteen years at RMS and now works independently. When parametric trigger design is needed, we engage the expert who structured $2 billion in cat bonds. For climate science translation, we tap the researcher who bridges IPCC projections and business applications.

We act as the single point of contact—scoping the challenge, assembling the right team, managing the workstream, integrating insights, and delivering coherent recommendations. Clients get the benefit of world-class specialists without managing multiple vendor relationships. Experts get access to interesting problems and fair compensation without the overhead and politics of large organizations.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Consider a PE firm evaluating a real estate portfolio acquisition. Traditional consulting would assign a generalist team to cover climate risk, insurance adequacy, and valuation implications.

The integrator model works differently. We'd assemble:

• A climate scientist who specializes in downscaling global models to property-level projections
• A catastrophe modeler focused on multi-peril residential exposure
• An insurance expert who structures parametric coverage for real estate portfolios
• A disaster finance specialist who evaluates basis risk in existing policies
• A real estate actuary who quantifies climate impacts on cash flows

Each brings deep expertise. We orchestrate their collaboration, ensure findings integrate coherently, and present unified recommendations. The PE firm gets institutional-grade analysis without managing five vendor relationships. The specialists get paid fairly for sophisticated work. The analysis is completed in weeks rather than months.

An Open Invitation to Climate Risk Experts

This model only works with a network of exceptional specialists. Which is why we're actively seeking collaborators.

If you're a climate scientist translating research into business applications, a catastrophe modeler pushing beyond historical distributions, an actuary rethinking life and property assumptions under climate change, a disaster finance expert structuring innovative risk transfer—we want to talk.

If you've gone independent or are considering it, if you're at a firm but interested in project-based collaboration, if you're in academia but want to bridge theory and practice—there's a place in this network.

We're not trying to build the biggest network. We're trying to build the best one—curated, credible, and collaborative.

The Future of Climate Risk Advisory

Climate change is the defining risk management challenge of our generation. The old consulting model—generalist teams, proprietary methodologies, high overhead—isn't adequate for the pace and complexity we're facing.

The integrator/orchestrator model offers a better path: specialized expertise, coordinated delivery, fair economics, faster results. It works better for clients who need actual solutions rather than impressive presentations. It works better for experts who want to apply their knowledge to real problems. It works better for the industry that needs rapid knowledge sharing and innovation.

This isn't about tearing down traditional consulting firms. They'll continue to serve clients who value brand names and comprehensive service lines. But for clients who prioritize depth over breadth, speed over process, and results over pedigree, there's now an alternative.

We're building that alternative. And we're looking for the best climate risk minds to build it with us.

If you're ready to be part of this, let's talk.