- Jackie Bennett OBE, Chair of the Bank of England’s Residential Property Forum, joins Climate X to help the UK housing market prepare for climate change.
- Climate change effects expected to have ‘fundamental impact’ on mortgages and housing - Climate X predicts how they will impact property decades before they happen.
As climate impacts accelerate, Climate X, the climate risk analytics provider, joins forces with renowned mortgage and housing expert Jackie Bennett OBE to help Britain’s housing market prepare for climate change.
Jackie Bennett is the Chair of the Bank of England’s Residential Property Forum and a senior advisor for UK Finance, where she was also Director of Mortgages. With over 20 years of experience in the mortgage and housing industry, she brings her extensive knowledge across the mortgage and insurance landscapes to Climate X as it scales its technology for leading financial institutions and commercial property firms worldwide.
The financial sector faces ever-increasing regulations requiring enhanced and mandatory disclosures and reporting of climate-related risks from the Prudential Regulation Authority, Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority. As the requirements surrounding climate risk are still relatively new, remaining current with the fast-changing landscape of regulations poses a significant challenge to firms. Jackie Bennett joins Climate X as an advisor in a bid to help financial and real estate firms confidently navigate that landscape with the fit-for-purpose tools needed to anticipate climate risks more effectively and build resilience in their front and back books.
Climate X has created a digital “twin” of the Earth, Spectra, which projects how extreme weather events fueled by the changing climate - including heatwaves, wildfires, flooding and landslides - can impact properties, infrastructure or assets under different emissions scenarios. Spectra also compliments its hazard data with energy efficiency ratings for the UK and the whole of Europe. This helps mortgage lenders and real estate firms meet regulatory requirements, prepare for such events, pivot their long-term business strategy, and quantify transition risks and retrofit costs.
Jackie first witnessed the impact of extreme weather over 20 years ago while working with the Association of British Insurers during the floods of 2000-01. The flood had a devastating impact on insurers and homeowners, with over 10,000 properties damaged at an estimated cost of £1bn. This, and more recent flood events, have highlighted the need for quality data to understand how and where properties need protection from future events and to ensure properties remain mortgageable and insurable for the long term.
On joining Climate X, Jackie Bennett OBE said: “Climate X has built a remarkable technology that holds immense potential for the mortgage and housing industries.
“Foreseeable harm from climate change will have a fundamental impact on mortgages and housing over the coming years - and robust climate risk data and modelling will become vital to these industries’ resilience.
I haven’t seen another organisation that commands the breadth and depth of climate risk insights as Climate X. I’m thrilled to be supporting the business in its journey."
Jackie Bennette OBE, Board Advisor at Climate X
“I haven’t seen another organisation that commands the breadth and depth of climate risk insights as Climate X. I’m thrilled to be supporting the business in its journey.”
Jackie has a portfolio of board and advisory positions. She was awarded an OBE for her contribution to the financial services industry during the global financial crisis in the late 2000s, working with the government to help keep people in their homes.
CEO and co-founder at Climate X, Lukky Ahmed, said: “The impacts of climate change across the world are now impossible to ignore - and the risks to global real estate and infrastructure will continue to increase exponentially.
Her expertise will be invaluable as we scale our product for the real estate sector, helping lenders and property owners to forecast climate risk and protect their assets. "
Lukky Ahmed, CEO & Co-Founder at Climate X
“Jackie is an impressive leader with an extensive background in the UK’s mortgage and housing market. Her expertise will be invaluable as we scale our product for the real estate sector, helping lenders and property owners to forecast climate risk and protect their assets.
“I’m thrilled to welcome her to the business as we continue our rapid growth.”
-ENDS-
For more information on Climate X or to arrange an interview, please contact [email protected].
About Climate X
Climate X is a fast-growth global climate risk analytics provider helping companies become more resilient to the impacts of climate change. The innovative startup has created a digital “twin” of the Earth that simulates extreme weather events and how they can damage properties, infrastructure and assets.
Its multiple award-winning tech platform Spectra projects the probability and severity of these events decades before they happen. Spectra provides clear data to leading commercial property firms and financial institutions worldwide to help protect their investments and assets. It supports firms to meet the regulatory demands of central banks and taskforce for climate-related disclosures (TCFD).
Spectra delivers location-specific risk ratings, Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ratings for transition risk and climate-adjusted loss estimates between now and 2100. It does this under multiple climate emission pathways via an easy-to-use SaaS platform or integrated API.
It has been named one of Sifted EU’s ‘Startups to Watch in 2023’, as well as winning CogX’s Best Innovation for Geospatial Applications in 2022.
Learn more about how Climate X can help quantify climate change-related threats to your real estate portfolio.
