Together with Finity, we helped mutual health funds prepare for their first mandatory climate disclosures through a collaborative, sector wide climate scenario analysis tailored to the health insurance context.
Facilitating collaborative workshops that introduced scenario analysis concepts and supported participants to link climate drivers to member health outcomes, claims patterns and system pressures.
Providing guidance on how scenario analysis can strengthen governance, strategic planning and risk management by illuminating how climate change may affect affordability, utilisation and long-term fund sustainability.
Enabling shared insights across member funds to anticipate shifts in healthcare demand, provider costs and member needs under different climate futures, supporting more informed decision-making.
Climate change is reshaping health and wellbeing across Australia. More frequent heatwaves, bushfires, floods, storms and smoke events are driving acute and chronic health impacts, increasing mental health pressures and disrupting care – all of which flow through to healthcare utilisation, claims costs and affordability for members.
These impacts are often felt earliest and most acutely in regional communities, where many mutual health funds have strong member bases and closer ties to local providers. Mutual health funds must navigate these pressures while maintaining member value, access to care and financial sustainability.
Australia’s new climate reporting regime (AASB S2) requires entities to disclose climate related financial risks and opportunities, how these may affect financial performance over time and the actions they are taking in response. Climate scenario analysis is a core requirement of this, helping entities explore plausible futures and assess resilience under different climate pathways.
Recognising the need for a consistent, sector wide approach, we convened mutual funds to co develop shared climate scenarios. These scenarios help funds understand how climate change may affect member health outcomes, healthcare demand, provider costs, claims experience and affordability and provide a common starting point for preparing Sustainability Reports under AASB S2.
The shared scenarios were developed around four key drivers of change: the physical climate environment, healthcare system pressures, government policy responses and shifting member needs and behaviours.
Climate KIC Australia and Finity were engaged to prepare a set of collaborative and shared climate scenarios for the mutual health fund sector. The objectives were to:
We provided the mutual health fund sector with:
Rising healthcare demand and constrained system capacity increase utilisation, driving up claims and provider costs. These pressures translate into higher premiums and reduced affordability, particularly for members in regions exposed to more severe climate impacts.
As mutual health funds begin preparing Sustainability Reports in 2026, our shared scenarios and sector‑level assessment provide a ready‑to‑use foundation for meeting AASB S2 Strategy disclosure requirements. They support consistent, decision‑useful disclosures and help funds strengthen resilience to climate‑related health and financial risks. A shared, collaborative approach provides a consistent baseline for disclosure, reduces duplication across funds and supports coordinated responses to sector‑wide risks. Most of all, it provides a structured forum and common language for mutual health funds to explore complex climate challenges together.
As part of this project, Climate KIC Australia led:
Chris Lee is the CEO of Climate KIC Australia and played a key role its establishment. Chris has extensive climate change experience and from 2009 to 2017 led the development and implementation of Climate Change Adaptation programs for the NSW Government. He has degrees in Economics and Environmental Management, and has experience across, public, private and university sectors.
As a Project Officer, Viv works on complex multi-stakeholder projects across various areas, with a focus on adaptation and resilience. She has a Master of Environmental Management with Excellence from UNSW, where she was a casual academic and teaching assistant. Having pivoted from a biology and ethology background in Montreal, Canada, she brings a passion for delightfully disrupting the humancentric status quo toward sustainable worldmaking.
As Lead – Strategic Projects, Melinda specialises in climate change adaptation and resilience. She delivers applied, collaborative research and innovation across Australia, Europe and the Pacific. Melinda draws on on her legal and policy background, as well as qualitative research and co‑design to support place‑based and systems‑focused resilience outcomes.
