International

In order to improve the resilience of our societies in the face of volatile weather and climate change, decision makers on all levels – from multinational organisations, governments, cities and companies down to the local community – need the facts to identify the most cost-effective instruments. They need to know the potential weather and climate-related damages over the coming decades, to identify measures to mitigate these risks – and to decide whether the benefits will outweigh the costs.

In our work, we are addressing questions like: What kind of weather and climate information is appropriate for options appraisal? Is it available? What is the susceptibility of end-users to extreme events, including their business models and supply chains? We are developing methodologies and tools that are suitable to answer the questions and thereby bridge the gap between the supply and demand sides. Our current focus is on modelling the impacts of floods, tropical cyclones, and European winter storms on different sectors and supply chains within the Economics of Climate Adaptation (ECA) framework. We aim for an integrated view of the fractional uncertainty along the chain of impact and seek ways to communicate uncertainty in the metrics pertinent to stakeholders.

The external pageECA methodologycall_made and its implementation in the open-source external pageCLIMADA platformcall_made provide decision makers with a fact base for options appraisal. This has been applied in case studies in more than 20 different regions around the globe, ranging from Maharashtra in India to the US Gulf coast, covering most key hazards (storm surge, flood, drought, etc.). We will continue to engage with stakeholders worldwide to study further cases and further develop and refine the approach, e.g. as a member of the external pageisimipcall_made community.

Our work focusses on identifying adaptation measures that increase resilience across a range of plausible negative shocks. To do this, we work in close partnership with stakeholders, employing iterative approaches and scenarios, co-design and stakeholder-led review.

The people working with an international focus include:

• Prof. Dr. David N. Bresch
• Dr. Jamie W. McCaughey (Socio-economic impacts and adaptation)
• Dr. Chahan Kropf (Global ecosystem impacts)
  
• Dr. Lukas Riedel (Impact estimations of hydrometeorological events with CLIMADA in the Weather4UN project)
  
• Dr. Evelyn Mühlhofer (Critical infrastructures risk)
  
• Dr. Simona Meiler (Tropical cyclone (sub-hazard) risk)
• Dr. Samuel Lüthi (Global wildfire and heat mortality risk)
• Pui Man Kam (Global displacement risks, early-tropical cyclone impact warning)
• Dr. Inga Sauer (Socio-economic damages caused by river floods)
• Zélie Stalhandske (Health impacts of climate change and extreme weather)
• Carmen Steinmann (Global wildfire risk and parametric insurance solutions)
• Sarah Hülsen (Global impacts on ecosystems and ecosystem services)