Firms that are more exposed to rising temperatures consistently deliver lower-than-expected returns, according to new research from the University of Exeter Business School. The study analysed over five decades of US stock data and introduced a measure of temperature sensitivity to assess how companies’ share performance responds to unusual shifts.

The UK has faced a record 204 “nationally significant” cyber attacks in the past year – an average of four a week – according to the National Cyber Security Centre. The figure, revealed in the agency’s latest annual review, published today, compares with 89 over the previous year

Chemstore UK is offering a free lithium-ion battery safety site survey for eligible businesses across the UK. This follows growing concern over fires linked to lithium-ion batteries, particularly in e-bikes, e-scooters and energy storage systems.

A major Amazon Web Services outage on Monday disrupted a wide range of online services, including Amazon, Lloyd’s Bank, Etsy, Verizon and Vodafone, illustrating the systemic risk posed by concentrated cloud provider dependencies, and the vulnerability of digital ecosystems to a single region or critical service failure.

Professor Richard Susskind, author of How to Think About AI, says that while AI will increasingly challenge professional roles in insurance over the next decade, market participants can find ways to embrace that change to remain relevant. Speaking at the CII's conference in London, Susskind told delegates that their greatest competitors in the future are not in fact their traditional rivals, but their AI-empowered clients.

Specialist energy and infrastructure broker and managing general agent Nardac has added construction all risk cover to the operational cover it already offers for batter energy storage systems. It is also extending its geographical reach, and in addition to catering for UK and US risks will now accept those in Europe and Australia.