Luke Wedmore and William Sturgeon, research analysts at MS Amlin, review the evidence and impact of supershear earthquakes and discuss how the effects of this type of earthquakes are currently missing from seismic design codes, national seismic hazard models, and catastrophe models used by the (re)insurance industry.

Carolyn Kousky, Environmental Defense Fund, and Hannah K. Friedrich, University of Arizona and Cornell University, explain the various state-created disaster insurance programmes in the United States and discuss their future role in an era of increasing risk.

Authors Jayanta Guin, Suz Tolwinski-Ward, Charles Jackson, Boyko Dodov, and Roger Grenier Verisk Extreme Event Solutions, Boston, MA introduce the catastrophe risk modelling industry, describe the history and latest developments in state-of-the-art cat models within their firm, and discuss how further collaboration across sectors could contribute to improvements in the estimation of climate-driven risk.