Adapting to change – building resilience to extreme weather.

 As the need to mobilise ever-greater resources to combat climate change grows, one inescapable fact looms large: even if global warming can be confined to just 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, companies, organizations and governments everywhere must develop strategies to protect communities and be resilient enough to resist extreme-weather events. 

 With wildfires near the Chinese city of Chongqing, heatwaves across Europe, floods in Pakistan and tornadoes in the US, adaptation to extreme-weather events will be a priority issue at November’s COP 27 climate meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh. 

 But what does climate adaptation mean in practice? And what role can insurers play in helping companies and organizations reduce risk and build resilience?  Last year, extreme-weather events cost the global economy $329bn. Meanwhile, during the 15 years to 2015, the global population at risk of flooding increased by 20-24 per cent.