IPCC calls on risk management to help mitigate climate change effects

In a report the IPCC said that the effects of climate change are already occurring across all continents and oceans. "We live in an era of man-made climate change," said Vicente Barros, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group II, which produced the report. "In many cases, we are not prepared for the climate-related risks that we already face. Investments in better preparation can pay dividends both for the present and for the future," he added. Although adaptation to reduce the risks caused by climate change is now starting to occur, there is a stronger focus on reacting to past events rather than on preparing for a changing future, said Chris Field, Co-Chair of Working Group II.hide"Climate-change adaptation is not an exotic agenda that has never been tried. Governments, firms and communities around the world are building experience with adaptation," Mr Field said. "This experience forms a starting point for bolder, more ambitious adaptations that will be important as climate and society continue to change." The report concludes that there are opportunities to respond to climate change risks and build resilience but that this will be no easy task. Mr Field said: "Understanding that climate change is a challenge in managing risk opens a wide range of opportunities for integrating adaptation with economic and social development and with initiatives to limit future warming. We definitely face challenges, but understanding those challenges and tackling them creatively can make climate-change adaptation an important way to help build a more vibrant world in the near-term and beyond." Adaptation can play a key role in decreasing climate change risks, added Mr Barros. "Part of the reason adaptation is so important is that the world faces a host of risks from climate change already baked into the climate system, due to past emissions and existing infrastructure," he said. The report, entitled Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, And Vulnerability, details the impacts of climate change to date, the future risks from a changing climate and the opportunities for effective action to reduce risks. A total of 309 coordinating lead authors, lead authors and review editors, drawn from 70 countries, were selected to produce the report. They enlisted the help of 436 contributing authors and a total of 1,729 expert and government reviewers. Following the report's publication risk and insurance industry players threw their weight behind the call for business to build resilience and deploy risk management to mitigate the effects of climate change. "The impacts of severe weather events are increasing and the IPCC report affirms that this trend is unlikely to abate, pointing to the necessity for taking adaptive actions to preserve economic vitality and community," said Lindene Patton, Zurich's Chief Climate Product Officer. "Business executives, municipal managers and individuals alike must take action to improve their preparedness and resilience to the impacts of climate change. New decision support tools enable effective comparison of adaptation tools that can significantly improve society's resilience to climate risk. Insurance is one of the tools if properly deployed that can smooth the transition to a more climate resilient state." Risk analytics and research firm Maplecroft said the IPCC report promotes the idea that managing climate change impacts is now an exercise in risk management. Maplecroft notes that some of the most progressive businesses have already begun to integrate climate change into their risk management frameworks. These efforts are helping them to gain strategic insight into the climate risk exposures associated with their supply chains, operations, investments and projects. However, new and more accurate data and tools are still needed to help strategic decision-making processes over the long-term, said Maplecroft. "The new IPCC report makes the bold decision to re-frame the climate change narrative in terms of risk and adaptation. In so doing, it helps reinforce the pressing need for countries, communities and business to better understand the potential impacts of climate change-including more frequent and intense extreme climate-related events, and more gradual changes such as sea level rise," said Maplecroft. "A great deal of work still needs to be done to ensure that climate risks are effectively and efficiently managed, both among leading organisations and those lagging behind," it added. In particular Maplecroft believes there is pressing need for: Relevant climate risk information that is presented in a way that decision makers can understand Robust methodologies for assessing climate risks to suit different needs (eg across sectors, strategic/operational decision making, and project cycle stage) Powerful tools that can help analyse climate change impact data within a specific organisational context New information, methods and tools will allow organisations to build resilience by assessing risks to internal operations and corporate objectives, said Maplecroft. However, the most effective organisational responses to climate change are most likely to emerge through additional consideration of the wider operating context in which activities take place, it concluded.

IPCC calls on risk management to help mitigate climate change effects

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