Carbon insurance

Dan Fairweather leads the Food Systems and Biodiversity within the Howden Climate Risk and Resilience Team. Dan has over 20 years’ experience in dealing with agricultural risks, mainly focussed on the aquaculture and livestock sectors. Starting out as a specialist Lloyd’s broker, Dan then went on to be the senior aquaculture underwriter at RSA for 7 years before retuning to broking, heading up the Livestock and Aquaculture Divisions at WTW and then Gallagher Speciality.

Latterly Dan has explored the use of parametric insurance and novel insurance products to incentivise environmental stewardship and support small-scale farmers and climate exposed communities. This work has led to a number of work streams with global environmental NGO’s to assess the role of finance and risk in the world of conservation.

Dan is increasingly looking at the regulation emerging around Nature and Biodiversity and exploring what can be done in the field of Biodiversity Credits and Biodiversity Net Gain and how risk management and insurance can support this. This work looks to learn from, and build on, the carbon credit market initiatives and emerging regulation.

Dan is a trained fish biologist, and is also currently a trustee for The Shark Trust, a global charity for the conservation of sharks, skates and rays.

Vipul leads the global development of Energy Transition advisory and insurance solutions at Howden. He helps to enable complex transition pathways, with particular focus on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), Low Carbon Fuels (LCF) and Carbon Credits (CC). He is responsible for shaping and delivering integrated insurance advisory and de-risking solutions for large-scale Energy Transition projects, be it in-country or transboundary. His work involves engagement with project developers, government regulators and financial institutions to align technical, regulatory and financial considerations across the project lifecycle. He provides strategic risk advisory to stakeholders and works closely with leading global insurers to structure and develop bespoke insurance solutions that address novel and evolving risks, enabling them in progressing towards investment decisions and long-term operational viability.
Prior to joining Howden, Vipul worked at the Singapore Economic Development Board, a government agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry. As a Manager in the Energy and Resources division, he was responsible for facilitating investment opportunities and supporting negotiations with major Energy and Renewables companies, contributing to Singapore’s positioning as a leading global hub for business, innovation and talent. His role also encompassed Energy Transition strategy development, where he was actively involved in assessing and advancing emerging areas including CCS, LCF, and CC. Through this work, he supported policy formulation and industry engagement efforts aimed at accelerating Singapore’s transition towards a lower-carbon energy system.
Vipul began his career at Marsh, where he spent eight years as a Senior Risk Broker within the Energy Practice. He advised clients across onshore energy, power and renewable projects, covering both construction and operational phases. During his tenure, he also led the development of Marsh’s Offshore Subsea Cable construction programme. His experience at Marsh provided him with a strong foundation in technical risk assessment, insurance structuring and stakeholder management across large-scale projects.

Sandrine leads our Non-Financial Institutions team in the Financial Lines division, specializing in Directors’ & Officers’ Liability (D&O), Professional Indemnity (PI), Crime, and Cyber insurance solutions. With two decades of experience at leading international broking firms, she brings a unique blend of technical expertise and collaborative leadership to deliver innovative, market-responsive financial lines strategies tailored to client needs.

Merrilyn heads the Strategic Solutions team in Singapore, specialising in property and casualty risks. She is responsible for bid management, transitional management, advisory, design, and implementation of general insurance programs for corporate clients. Merrilyn has over 20 years of experience in international broking firms focusing on new business development and placements. Her experience has enabled her to structure cost-effective multinational insurance solutions for major corporate clients in both the private and government sectors.