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reen group Nature Conservancy (TNC) suggests insurance companies take part in mitigating the direct effect of climate change, as they are dealing with disaster risk management for corporate clients.

TNC Indonesia marine program director Gondan Puti Renosari said that insurance companies could provide incentives for taking part in disaster risk mitigation, especially for their corporate clients working in the mining industry.

Gondan said that insurance companies could provide lower premiums for their corporate clients that promoted environmentally friendly programs or engaged in efforts to prevent climate change.

She said that insurance companies, however, needed to master new knowledge on the environment.

'€œWe are proposing the idea of insurance companies giving incentives to their corporate clients, for example, in taking care of coral reefs,'€ Gondan said during a press conference on disaster risk management and climate resilient development in Jakarta on Thursday.

TNC International Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction Policy director Imen Meliane said that insurance companies also needed to look at climate change as the biggest threat.

Meliane said that climate change could pose clear and present danger that could prompt insurance companies to spend more money.

'€œInsurance companies have to make more payouts, so they will lose in the end,'€ she said.

Imen said insurance companies worked well when they could convince potential customers of medium risk. She said that there should be enough risk for customers to buy insurance, but not high enough to enable insurance companies to make money.

She said that the role of insurance companies in promoting awareness on risk potential was crucial in terms of disaster risk management.

Separately, General Insurance Association of Indonesia vice executive director Silvy Setiawan said only large corporate clients that had the awareness and understanding of the impact of climate change could change their business.

Silvy said that insurance companies had included natural disasters as risks that they could cover for their corporate clients.

'€œLarge corporations are aware of the impact of climate change, but not all individuals have enough understanding,'€ she said.

She said that insurance companies could not reach those who were most at risk due to climate change, such as villagers who had experienced the direct impact of natural disasters, namely tsunamis and windstorms alongside the country'€™s natural beaches. (put)