Climate Risk Management最新文献

Adaptation to ever intensifying climate change is of paramount importance to reduce its impacts, in particular for those at the frontlines of climate change such as the Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS). However, a range of constraints make it harder to plan and implement adaptation and thus hinder adaptation progress. Here, we provide an assessment on regional perceptions of adaptation constraints and avenues to overcome them based on a mixed-method approach, combining an online survey and semi-structured interviews with adaptation experts from Caribbean SIDS. We find that finance is the largest constraint being faced which closely interacts with information, human capacity and governance constraints throughout the entire adaptation process. Such interacting constraints can lead to vicious cycles profoundly hindering adaptation and therefore need to be addressed in parallel. Our results highlight how adaptation actors at the national level, in particular national governments, have a key role to play when overcoming constraints for the implementation of adaptation projects at the local level, alongside regional and international organisations.

The frequency, intensity and duration of extreme weather events have seriously affected human life and production. The electric power sector is the foundation of economic activity as well as a core participant in the adaptation and mitigation of climate change. Therefore, in the context of climate change, it is crucial for the stable operation of the national economy for power sector to cope with different climate change risks and improve their adaptability to climate change. In this paper, listed power companies in China are selected as samples to analyse the impact of climate change risk on the financial performance of the power system's supply and transmission-distribution sides. The empirical results show a significant positive correlation between climate change risks and the financial performance of listed electric power companies. The rainfall index and drought index positively impact the financial performance of listed electric power companies. The cryogenic freezing index has a negative impact on the financial performance of listed electric power companies., which is further analysed and proved that a cryogenic freezing disaster will cause the regional breakdown of the power system. The operating cost ratio and the proportion of clean energy supply play a mediating effect on the correlation between the comprehensive climate risk index and the return on equity of companies. To increase electric power companies' ability to adapt to climate change, climate change risks should be integrated into the risk management framework, and the company's financial performance can be improved by optimizing the energy mix and constructing safe lines. The government can promote the transformation of electric power companies by launching green financial tools.

The Cotabato River Basin, located on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, holds paramount importance for local communities and the national economy. However, over the past few decades, the region has been severely affected by the consequences of climate change, such as flooding and drought, along with long-standing socio-political conflicts that threaten livelihood security. This article analyzes the interplay between livelihood security, climate fragility, and state fragility to foster a more meaningful understanding of the impacts arising from historical fragilities and conflicts. The study findings reveal five significant effects of these fragilities on security: persistent flooding, changes in land use, river siltation, drought impact, and uncertainties stemming from violent conflicts. Through a detailed analysis, the article elucidates how the frequent exposure to these events has compelled communities to adapt by perceiving threats to their livelihoods as uncontrollable, thereby normalizing fragilities as an inherent aspect of everyday life. The study underscores the importance of temporal awareness and cultural understanding to comprehend the complexities of fragilities and conflicts. Integrating such awareness and experience makes refining approaches to strengthen livelihoods and mitigate community vulnerabilities possible.

Rising air temperatures are the main reason for the expected reduction in land suitability for coffee cultivation under climate change in Central America. One of the reasons farmers use shade trees is to create a cooler microclimate in coffee plantations located in warming areas; therefore, adjusting the shade levels could alleviate future high temperatures. Even though data on expected climatic changes are available, no studies have addressed the cooling potential of shading in coffee production systems. In this study, we use regional climate information (RCP 4.5) and a simple shade model to explore the potential of shading as an adaptation practice in the coffee areas in Central America. A model was developed to estimate the required shade levels for Coffea arabica L. based on mean air temperature. Modeled and observed shade data were compared. Results indicate that compared to 2000, an overall increment of 23 ± 18% of shading would be required to alleviate the warming conditions by 2050. The shading will be more beneficial to coffee areas at medium and high altitudes than to areas at low ones. Also, the number of coffee areas that require dense shade levels (shading > 60%) may double by 2050. This would lead to a boost in tree biomass (carbon content) but also increase the competition for the coffee plants and consequently affect coffee yields. Trade-offs between adaptation, mitigation, and productivity objectives are expected in the coffee areas in the future.

Climate-related disasters are increasing in many parts of the world, yet investment in disaster risk reduction (DRR) remains insufficient to manage these risks. This is despite growing recognition that DRR interventions can reduce potential impacts from disasters as well as deliver broader economic, ecological, and social co-benefits. Focusing on the net benefits of DRR, beyond avoiding losses and damages, is considered as an important strategy to strengthen the case for DRR as part of a sustainable development by academics and international organizations alike. However, there is very limited evidence of on-the-ground accounting of these “multiple resilience dividends” by those who act to reduce disaster risk at the local level. Using an innovative analytical approach, we investigate the knowledge gaps and challenges associated with considering multiple resilience dividends in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of DRR interventions at the community level for the example of flood risk. We use a newly developed framework to analyze empirical survey data on community-level DRR interventions as well as five in-depth case studies from Vietnam, Nepal, Indonesia, Afghanistan, and the United Kingdom. The analysis reveals a disconnect between available planning tools and the evidence of materialized multiple resilience dividends, which is a key obstacle to successfully apply the concept at the community level. Structured consideration of multiple resilience dividends from the planning to the monitoring and evaluation stages is required to secure local buy-in and to ensure that these dividends materialize as intended.

Extreme weather events have cost lives and financial losses across the United States. Moreover, they are expected to increase in frequency, and this will exacerbate their impact on vulnerable sectors such as agriculture. But how farmers could adapt to extreme weather events by adopting different conservation practices has received slight attention in the literature. This study examines how farmers' perceptions of drought and flooding influence their decisions to implement conservation practices in their conventional crop fields. Out of the 350 farmer responses we received, fewer than half indicated a likelihood to adopt no-tillage/reduced tillage (43%), cover crops (40%), crop diversification (37%), and integrated crop-livestock grazing (29%). Using this data and a multivariate probit modeling framework, we show that farmers’ decisions can be partly explained by their perception of drought but not by their perception of flooding. Specifically, the perceived number of drought years significantly increases the likelihood of adopting no-tillage/reduced tillage and diversified cropping in the future. However, the number of drought years is not significantly associated with the use of cover crops and integrated crop-livestock grazing. These results suggest that the effects of extreme weather events on adoption of conservation practices as adaptive measures vary across different practices. Therefore, adaptation policies that make use of conservation practices must be tailored to farmers’ needs and priorities to be effective.

Building community resilience requires centering equity in resilience planning processes. Tools and resources for strengthening community resilience need to address equity in both their content and the process for using them. This is especially so for communities living in proximity to contaminated lands that face compounding hazards (i.e., environmental, disaster, and climate-related); legacies of institutional or structural disenfranchisement; challenges with inclusion of minority populations in planning; and constraints on doing data-intensive planning and management in under-resourced and underserved jurisdictions. A research team from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is developing a new resource, the Equitable Resilience Builder, which will serve communities with intersecting social and environmental vulnerabilities, in pursuit of creating resilience plans and developing the intra-community connections to implement them. This article details how the team used human-centered design to develop the Equitable Resilience Builder. Our objective in doing so is to share the evolution of equity in the project and demonstrate key inflection points in the discovery, synthesis, and ideation phases of human-centered design. The team was able to expand their understanding of what it means to undertake resilience planning in an equitable way during engagements with state, local, tribal agencies, foundations, non-governmental organizations, and academia and through participatory workshops. It developed design principles for how the tool might use storytelling and other techniques to address emotions and trauma, ensure local voices are heard, and encourage relationship building. This article offers lessons learned for others seeking to address resilience and equity in climate risk management, particularly when working with communities in proximity to contaminated lands.

Adaptation requires investing now to avoid future damages, and thus adaptation is shaped by discount rates. Although the role of social discount rates in climate policy design has been well documented, the role of private discount rates has been ignored. We illustrate the importance of private discount rates in shaping adaptation investments by empirically demonstrating how household discount rates are negatively correlated with investments in water storage tanks in Central America. High private discount rates are common throughout the world and are a barrier to private adaptation investments. To overcome this barrier, adaptation policies targeted at private actors should ensure that benefits accrue sooner or that costs are lowered or accrue later. Governments or private companies could also offer long-term loans that exploit the differential between the discount rate of the lender and the private borrower.