Only 30% of businesses surveyed in Türkiye have climate resilience plans: Marsh

Marsh Climate and Sustainability Managing Director Swenja Surminski said preliminary findings from the company’s 2026 Climate Adaptation Survey show that while half of the businesses surveyed in Türkiye assess climate-related risks, only 30% have systematic plans to strengthen their resilience. “We recently conducted a survey of businesses in Türkiye. Initial findings show that half of our respondents assess climate risk. However, only 30% have a systematic plan to take action to improve their resilience,” Surminski told Anadolu.

Surminski, an executive at Marsh, a global professional services company specializing in risk, reinsurance, capital, investment and management consulting, said COP31 was taking place at a time when the effects of climate change were increasingly being felt worldwide. “Timing is now critical when it comes to taking action. I think this COP, as the Turkish presidency has emphasized, is focused on action and implementation. I am very pleased that the insurance industry is part of this dialogue,” she said.

She emphasized that the insurance sector possesses extensive knowledge of risks, along with tools and solutions to help businesses address them. Surminski added that the industry is developing new technologies and helping reduce risks associated with renewable energy, supporting investment in the sector. She highlighted the importance of the Insurance House initiative in raising the industry’s visibility, demonstrating potential solutions and building momentum across the sector.

Explaining Marsh’s approach, Surminski said the company works with businesses of all sizes across different industries to help them identify, understand and manage risks through data analysis and analytical tools. Referring to Marsh Risk’s 2026 Climate Adaptation Survey, she noted that the Turkish findings indicate a considerable gap between businesses’ awareness of climate risks and their preparedness to address them. Surminski said Marsh aims to go beyond identifying present and future threats by helping companies determine what practical measures they can take.

She explained that the company supports businesses in making appropriate investments, prioritizing necessary actions and adopting a more strategic approach to risk management. Risk models must account for future scenarios Surminski said Marsh works with businesses worldwide and that while challenges vary between countries and sectors, the fundamental approach to risk management remains consistent. She stressed that companies must accurately identify the sources of the risks they face.

According to Surminski, some businesses have yet to measure their exposure to these threats and therefore lack a clear understanding of potential consequences and financial costs. “We provide businesses with the support and tools they need to ask themselves, ‘What should I do now? What should I do in one year? What should I do in five years?’ This allows the process to develop into a proper resilience plan. I believe this is essential to ensuring that businesses are not caught unprepared,” she said.

Surminski noted that climate resilience is becoming a competitive issue, as investors may want to assess whether a company is adequately prepared to withstand future risks. She said Marsh also collaborates with governments and public institutions, rather than focusing exclusively on private businesses. In Türkiye, the company helps the Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool (DASK) in risk analysis and securing reinsurance coverage, she added.

Surminski said Marsh frequently works with cities and municipalities, helping local authorities understand the risks they face and identify measures to strengthen the resilience of their infrastructure. She emphasized that risk models should not rely solely on historical information but must also be capable of anticipating future developments. According to Surminski, businesses and institutions need to consider a range of potential outcomes when preparing resilience strategies and using risk assessment tools.

Describing this approach as scenario planning, she said organizations should avoid assuming that events are unlikely to happen simply because they have not occurred before. “Instead of looking at the past and saying, ‘There has never been a flood here, so there will never be one,’ we need to consider possible outcomes,” she said. Surminski stressed that risk assessment models must therefore be updated to reflect changing climate conditions.

She noted that insurance companies are already investing in more sophisticated modeling systems and that technological advances could further improve their effectiveness. “I believe technology will also help us. We are becoming increasingly capable of using technology. We are learning from the past because we can examine what has happened over the last 10 years. We can see how the climate is changing,” she said. “We can now use this information to develop a clearer understanding of what might happen in the future.

Artificial intelligence can also play a role in this process by making data much more accessible and accelerating calculations.” Marsh Risk’s 2026 Climate Adaptation Survey aims to examine how approximately 120 public-and private-sector organizations worldwide are responding to an evolving risk environment. The Türkiye section of the research, conducted in cooperation with Ipsos in November 2026, involved 184 senior executives and business owners.