The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) published a joint white paper setting out how open-access Earth Observation data from Copernicus could be used to strengthen supervision of natural catastrophes and to assess how extreme weather events affect Europe’s insurance sector. Drawing on a joint pilot project, the paper argues that satellite-based data can provide independent, objective and near real-time geospatial information to support risk identification, scenario design and post-event loss estimation. It outlines potential supervisory uses including mapping affected areas as events unfold and matching this with Solvency II regulatory reporting to estimate impacts on individual insurers, scaling these insights to estimate sector-wide losses, and using EO-derived reference points for benchmarking, model validation, and the design of scenarios and stress tests.
European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority 2026-03-23
European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority and EU Agency for the Space Programme publish white paper on using Copernicus Earth Observation data for natural catastrophe supervision
The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority and the EU Agency for the Space Programme released a white paper on using Copernicus Earth Observation data to enhance supervision of natural catastrophes and assess impacts on Europe's insurance sector. It highlights satellite-based data's potential for risk identification, scenario design, and post-event loss estimation, with applications in mapping affected areas and integrating with Solvency II reporting.