IPCC_Managing Risks of Extreme Events.pdf - Climate Access

Chapter 6National Systems for Managing the Risks from Climate Extremes and DisastersEcosystem-based solutions in the context of changing climate risks can offer ‘triple-win’ solutions, as theycan provide cost-effective risk reduction, support biodiversity conservation, and enable improvements ineconomic livelihoods and human well-being, particularly for the poor and vulnerable (high agreement,robust evidence). The assessment found that such ecosystem-based adaptation strategies, including mangroveconservation and rehabilitation, integrated catchment management, and sustainable forest and fisheries management,also minimize the scope for maladaptation in developed and developing countries. In choosing amongst ecosystembasedadaptation options, decisionmakers may need to make tradeoffs between particular climate risk reductionstrategies and other valued ecosystem services. [6.5.2]Insurance-related instruments are key mechanisms for helping households, business, and governmentsabsorb the losses from disasters; but their uptake is unequally distributed across regions and hazards, andoften public-private partnerships are required (high agreement, robust evidence). Disaster insurance andother risk transfer instruments covered about 20% of reported weather-related losses over the period 1980 to 2003.Distribution, though, is uneven, with about 40% of the losses insured in high-income as compared to 4% of losses inlow-income countries. Existing national insurance systems differ widely as to whether policies are compulsory orvoluntary, and importantly in how systems allocate liability and responsibility for disaster risks across society. Withchanging weather and extreme events, vulnerability, and exposure, extended and innovative private-public sectorpartnerships are required to better estimate and price risk as well as to develop robust insurance-related products,which may be supported in developing countries by development partner funds. [6.5.3]Pooling of risk by and between national governments contributes to reducing the fiscal and socioeconomicconsequences of disasters (medium agreement, medium evidence). As national governments hold a largeportfolio of public liabilities (infrastructure, public assets, and the provision of disaster relief), risk aggregation andpooling are expected to become more important given projected impacts of climate change and trends in vulnerabilityand exposure. In addition, particularly for small, low-income, and highly exposed countries, risk transfer of public sectorassets and relief expenditure recently have become a cornerstone of disaster risk reduction. Key innovative and promisingapplications recently implemented comprise sovereign insurance for hurricane risk, insurance for humanitarian assistancefollowing droughts, and intergovernmental risk pooling. [6.4.3, 6.5.3]Flexible and adaptive national systems are better suited to manage projected trends and associateduncertainties in exposure, vulnerability, and weather and climate extremes than static and rigid nationalsystems (high agreement, limited evidence). Adaptive management brings together different scientific, social, andeconomic information, experiences, and traditional knowledge into decisionmaking through ‘learning by doing.’ Multicriteriaanalysis, scenario planning, and flexible decision paths offer options for taking action when faced with largeuncertainties or incomplete information. National systems for managing disaster risk can adapt to climate change andshifting exposure and vulnerability by (i) frequently assessing and mainstreaming knowledge of dynamic risks;(ii) adopting ‘low regrets’ strategies; (iii) improving learning and feedback across disaster, climate, and developmentorganizations at all scales; (iv) addressing the root causes of poverty and vulnerability; (v) screening investments forclimate change-related impacts and risks to minimize scope for maladaptation; and (vi) increasing standing capacityfor emergency response as climatic conditions change over time. [6.6.1, 6.6.2, 6.6.4]343