Climate science
Start with credible evidence and learn to read uncertainty and calibrated confidence language carefully.
A&A Practitioner Learning Series
Where should an actuarial student start with climate risk?
A free, practitioner-oriented learning path for actuarial students and early-career actuaries—from climate science and scenarios to data, actuarial application, professional judgment and governance.
- Free resource No registration required
- 4-week pathway Structured for independent study
- Actuarial lens From evidence to decisions
What the guide is designed to do
Build the foundations before jumping to model outputs.
Climate-risk work sits at the intersection of science, economics, insurance and professional judgment. The guide provides a structured way to build that foundation and then connect it to actuarial work.
Scenario literacy
Understand what climate scenarios represent, how assumptions differ and why scenario outputs are not forecasts.
Actuarial application
Trace climate drivers through exposure and vulnerability to actuarial assumptions, outcomes and decisions.
Data and governance
Examine provenance, limitations, transformations, documentation and the controls needed for responsible use.
A practical sequence
Five steps from science to actuarial judgment.
The objective is not to turn every actuary into a climate scientist. It is to develop enough literacy to ask better questions, interpret model outputs responsibly and document decisions transparently.
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1
Science
Understand observed change, impacts, adaptation and mitigation.
Starting point: IPCC -
2
Scenarios
Explore plausible pathways for physical and transition risk.
Starting point: NGFS -
3
Practice
Connect climate risk with insurance and actuarial applications.
Starting point: SOA + IFoA -
4
Data
Inspect public datasets and test a focused question.
Starting point: NGFS + Copernicus + ACI -
5
Judgment
Document assumptions, uncertainty and decision relevance.
Output: a transparent model note
Who it is for
Useful for self-study, teaching and early professional development.
The guide is intentionally concise. It is designed to help readers find a credible starting point and then build confidence through structured practice.
Build climate-risk literacy alongside actuarial training.
Use the four-week study plan as an independent learning exercise or as a starting point for a university project.
Connect climate concepts to actuarial work.
Practice moving from evidence and scenarios to assumptions, limitations, governance and decision relevance.
Use it as a structured resource map.
The guide can support classroom discussion, independent study or a short practitioner-oriented assignment.
FREE PRACTITIONER GUIDE
Download the learning path
Climate Risk Learning Path for Actuarial Students and Early-Career Actuaries
Eight pages · September 2026 · Arocha & Associates GmbH
From self-study to team application
Bring the learning path to your actuarial or risk team.
When the next step is team alignment or capability building, A&A can adapt the learning path into a tailored working session built around your organisation's decisions, maturity and climate-risk priorities.
This learning path is provided for educational and informational purposes. Readers should confirm the current release, assumptions and limitations of any third-party sources or models before applying them to a specific decision.