Introducing our partnership with WWF
Transcript
This is the story of a flower
and a bee.
It began a long, long time ago
when these two wonders of nature
first teamed up to achieve something
that was almost impossible alone.
Enticed by the sweet smell
of the flowers nectar.
The hungry bee dived in
and in return for the feast,
carried pollen onto plants
far, far beyond the flowers reach.
The flowers were pollinated
and the hive was fed.
It's in this spirit that
WWF and Aviva join forces today,
working in harmony to help tackle
one of the greatest challenges
the planet and all life on it
has ever faced,
Climate change.
WWF’s world leading expertise on nature
loss and climate change and Aviva's extensive reach
striving to make our financial system
sit up and take notice.
Working together in the UK to build
healthier, more resilient communities, restoring landscapes
and aiming to shift the finance sector to net zero.
Shaping this future is not
an individual effort.
It takes partnerships.
It takes Aviva and WWF.
A natural partnership.
Getting climate ready means people, businesses and communities are preparing to overcome the impact of more extreme weather, at the same time as cutting our carbon footprints.
Cracking the challenge of climate change will take acting in partnership with others to find the answers that all of us, and the planet, depend on.
A natural partnership
Aviva sees the devasting effects that extreme weather has on our customers and communities. And we’re living up to our responsibility to act. We’re helping customers take smart choices towards a more sustainable future. We’re working to make people and businesses more resilient to bad weather. We’re exerting our influence on the financial system so it can deliver a low-carbon and nature positive future.
WWF are the world’s leading global environmental charity, working towards a future where people and nature thrive together. They recognise that the finance sector is the key to unlocking the private funding needed to tackle the climate crisis and build healthier more resilient ecosystems. They also understand the importance of positive change from governments and international organisations to lead the move to a sustainable economy.
WWF brings expertise in climate action and an enormous network of influence. Aviva offers a connection to our customers and the credibility and reach to lead the way in financial services. Together, our organisations can create a formidable force for change.
Our ambition
With this 3-year partnership, Aviva becomes WWF’s lead partner in the insurance and pensions sector. Our partnership is making a difference in three areas:
Building climate resilient communities and restoring nature
We believe protecting nature and restoring biodiversity are inextricably linked to reducing climate change and helping deal with its impacts. During our partnership we’re developing projects that work with nature to help reduce the effects of extreme weather, particularly flooding, on communities in the UK and Canada.
Encouraging action by engaging people
We want to engage our colleagues and consumers across the UK and Canada to better understand more widely the power of their individual choices, actions and financial decisions.
Transforming the finance sector by advocating for change
Financial institutions have a vital role to play in the transition to a sustainable future, and together with WWF, we are striving for a transformational shift in the sector to help slow climate change.
From ambition to action
We’re making good progress, taking action across all three areas of our work. Here are some examples of the activity underway.
The difference we're making together
Our annual partnership report
Discover some of the key impacts our partnership has achieved in its second year, from July 2022 until June 2023.
From legislative progress to making a real difference in communities – we also share some valuable experiences along the way.
Encouraging action by engaging people
Supporting local communities to take action for nature
Our £1 million Save Our Wild Isles Community Fund, in partnership with WWF and the RSPB, has helped over 250 community groups across the UK to protect and restore nature in their local area.
Building climate resilient communities and restoring nature
Wild Ingleborough (UK)
Restoring peatlands, woodland and heathland as part of the Wild Ingleborough project in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Photography credit: Andrew Parkinson / WWF-UK
East Anglia (UK)
Restoring the natural flow of rivers in East Anglia to reduce flooding within a number of catchments through natural flood management, building physical and community resilience in this unique, largely agricultral landscape.
Photography credit: Joseph Gray / WWF-UK
River Soar (UK)
Restoring the natural flow of rivers in the East Midlands. Funding innovative natural flood-management inititives that will create multiple benefits for nature, while building greater climate resilience within the wider community.
Watch our video on how we're bringing this to life.
Photography credit: Jiri Rezac / WWF-UK
Firth of Forth (UK)
Restoring seagrass meadows and native oyster beds in the Firth of Forth in Scotland. Raising awareness of the benefits of marine restoration and reinvigorating the heritage of coastal communities.
Photography credit: Steve Morgan / WWF-UK
Saltmarsh research project Lancashire (UK)
This research - carried out in partnership with WWF, and in collaboration with the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) - represents a significant step in addressing critical knowledge gaps in saltmarsh management. The project will also monitor the role these important habitats can play in fighting climate change and removing carbon emissions from the atmosphere.
Nature and Climate Grant Programme (Canada)
Aviva Canada is the presenting partner of WWF-Canada’s Nature and Climate Grant Program. Helping communities and indigenous organisations restore degraded lands to improve habitat for biodiversity and carbon capture, to help wildlife thrive and fight climate change at the same time.
Photography credit: Emily Vandermeer / WWF-UK
Transforming the finance sector by advocating for change
Thought leadership
We’ve engaged with an influential audience of finance industry and policy stakeholders in our shared vision for the finance sector, contributing to and shaping the debate with collaborative reports.
Leading the financial sector fight against climate change
Aviva Group CEO Amanda Blanc and Tanya Steele, CEO, WWF-UK talk about our exciting charity partnership in this short film.
Transcript for video Leading the financial sector fight against climate change
Amanda Blanc, Aviva Group CEO:
We’re living in the midst of a climate emergency and as the UK’s leading insurer, we’ve got a big responsibility to do something about that Aviva has already set out our stall with our ambition to be Net Zero by 2040.
At the same time, we want to help our customers and communities to do more.
We want to help them be more resilient to extreme weather and understand what actions they can take personally to build a more sustainable future.
So, I’m totally delighted we have a new partner in the WWF.
They’re the world’s leading conservation organisation with fantastic expertise and an enormous network and influence in the area of climate action.
I’m really excited about what we’ll be able to achieve together.
Tanya Steele, Chief Executive WWF-UK:
At the heart of our mission is the dual challenge of tackling climate change, but also restoring our natural world.
Without it we won't have a stable planet which is the one place that we can all call home.
And whilst WWF were famous for working to save really iconic species, we know that at the heart of this crisis are a series of drivers that are driving the destruction of our planet, and finance plays an incredibly important role.
If we can ensure that finance is driving sustainability and is enabling our planet to be in balance, then we know we would have delivered real change.
Amanda Blanc, Aviva Group CEO:
We help people at all stages of their life.
From insuring their first home to helping them save for their retirement and we see the direct impact of floods or storms on people’s lives and livelihoods
That gives us a real understanding of how important it is to do something about it.
On top of that we’ve been working to make the global economy more sustainable for decades.
We’ve got the credibility and the influence to lead the way in financial services
And help the whole industry do more to contribute to a low-carbon future
Tanya Steele, Chief Executive WWF-UK:
WWF is really proud to be working with Aviva as a leader on sustainability in the finance sector acting on climate change.
And is the first major insurer worldwide to target Net Zero by 2040.
We know that Aviva is committed to reaching the Paris goals of 1.5 degrees to limit a warming world, and we need the whole of the finance sector to follow.
We know the strength that can come from lots of people acting together with a shared goal.
They will also act as a sort of critical friend on our work and ensure we are taking the right approach to the systemic challenge.
There’ll be lots of opportunities for our people to get involved so, I’d urge everyone to look out for what they can do to take part.
The science is telling us that we have less than a decade to change both the way we live, but also be on a path to recovery and start to restore our natural world.
It's great to be with Aviva on this journey.
Working towards a better tomorrow
Acting on climate change, taking social action, embedding sustainability... find out more about how we're aiming to create a better tomorrow.
On the path to a more climate-ready world
We want the countries we operate in to become more climate ready.
We’ve measured influential countries on how they are progressing on vital climate mitigation, resilience and adaptation factors.