A global advisory and brokerage firm, WTW, has partnered with Cornell University’s Toby Ault, an expert on future drought, to better advise clients on drought-related risks and losses. The collaboration aims to provide actionable and usable information to the insurance and reinsurance industries. Ault’s research focuses on year-to-year and multi-year variations in drought, and the project seeks to develop tools and datasets to predict single and multi-year droughts. The partnership will also identify areas where climate may amplify drought, estimate drought risk more accurately, and create new tools and datasets to predict drought. The research aims to understand how climate models can be used to improve drought risk assessments and to develop products that can be used by the insurance industry to anticipate and price risks. The long-term goal of the project is to catalyze industry-wide transformation in how drought risks are understood, measured, and mitigated. The partnership will also explore the downstream effects of drought and its impact on various sectors, including energy, finance, and public policy.
Cornell University Partners with Industry to Advance Drought Risk Analysis
