Expected start date:

2012•10•01

Expected end date:

2019•05•31

Institute:

UNU-EHS

Project Status:

Closed

Project Type:

Research

Project Manager :

Maxime Souvignet

Weeks of heavy rainfall, severe flash flooding, unusually long hot spells, and violent thunderstorms can all cause great amounts of damage; those who are caught unprepared do not have much of a chance of saving their life possessions. These dangerous weather events are just as treacherous to those in the growing urban settlements as those in rural areas. As the frequency and severity of these events continue to rise, it becomes increasingly imperative for societies to immediately start preparing for climate change and its serious consequences. To deal with these climate risks proactively, a high degree of self-responsibility is needed to strengthen the community. To prepare for the consequences of climate change, all sectors need to make changes, including: city infrastructure, water and energy infrastructure, as well as the transport, tourism, and agricultural sectors. However, the effectiveness of such preparation measures is limited and their economic viability cannot be guaranteed. More importantly, some residual risk always remains from rare yet catastrophic events like flooding or major storms. The question is thus: How can we best deal with this residual risk? 

On behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), Advancing Climate Risk Insurance Plus (ACRIplus) is developing concepts tailored to the local needs of cities and countries in cooperation with its partners. ACRIplus focuses particularly on the sectors that are heavily affected by climate change. Together with the public and private sector partners, ACRIplus is developing integrated solutions for climate risk management that enable people and their governments to better deal with the consequences of climate change. ACRIplus even goes one step further by planning for residual risk in its sustainable climate risk management approach by strengthening risk awareness, thereby increasing the readiness to adapt to climate change and by developing innovative insurance solutions that are integrated into wider risk management strategies to effectively transfer residual risks.

To inform the policy discussion on comprehensive risk management approaches and to support climate negotiators in their short and long-term strategies to address loss and damage and link practical expertise more efficiently to the needs of policy makers, MCII is cooperating with GIZ on developing a strategic framework for low income countries and emerging economies to better assist climate negotiators in finding ways to implement climate risk insurance solutions in an integrated climate risk management approach.