As the world talks climate change solutions at Climate Week 2020, XDI is calling out an important missing link in global Green Recovery spending — the need to invest in a deeper understanding of climate risk to our cross-dependent economies and the resilience we’ll need to mitigate intensifying climate change impacts.
With 21 cyclones hitting the Northern Hemisphere in rapid succession and heat and fire still devastating the US west coast, the impacts of climate change are playing out before us in real time. The costs of Australia’s bushfires that destroyed 12 million acres six months ago is estimated at US$5.4 billion in insurance claims. The cost of fires on the west coast of the US is likely to be much higher.
It’s welcome news that as much as US$800 billion is being invested in Green Recovery initiatives internationally, including new renewable energy and infrastructure projects, but it’s essential that all new infrastructure developments are planned and built with climate change resilience in mind. Climate risk to critical infrastructure — everything from energy, water, communications and transport to supply chain, investments and essential services — poses the greatest threat for the continued functioning of our economies as climate change impacts increase.
New infrastructure built with Green Recovery dollars will need to endure harsher conditions due to climate change. For businesses and government, understanding potential risks to critical and interdependent infrastructure must be achieved hand in hand with investment decisions. We have the technology to check these risks; it’s essential that it be rolled out across all investments from now on.
With heavy reliance on critical infrastructure and the interdependent technologies and systems that support them, there is a growing need to implement new analytic models and scenarios to assure operational resilience. In November XDI will launch a new report, “Good as the Weakest Link: A Review of Cross-Dependency Methods for Climate Change and Infrastructure,” reviewing the latest thinking on climate cross dependent risk and integrated adaptation.