MCII Project Manager, Dr. Maxime Souvignet, spoke at the SDG GLOBAL FESTIVAL FOR ACTION on ideas about why climate action is needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

With climate change, extreme weather events are hitting harder and more frequently. Hurricanes are vastly stronger, droughts are worsening, and heat waves are striking farther and longer. And with these devastating disasters, the poor and vulnerable around the world are most affected.

Climate risk insurance, when combined with other mechanisms, can be part of a solution to buffer the devastating effects that a changing climate can have on people’s livelihoods, such as loss of harvest or destruction of homes.

MCII and the German Association for International Cooperation (GIZ), together with local authorities and private sector partners, develop new insurance solutions that are linked to all of the phases of the disaster risk management cycle in their joint project ADVANCING CLIMATE RISK INSURANCE PLUS (ACRI+). Based on a comprehensive risk analysis of extreme weather events and their direct and indirect effects on people, the environment, and the economy, new measures are also being devised. These are designed to have a positive impact on all of the phases in disaster risk management – an integrated, effective approach which uses the full potential of each phase. Through this approach, the project creates the opportunity to prepare long-term for climate change and its serious consequences.

The session was complemented by Mr. Eike Behre from GIZ, who elaborated on how the integrated approach to climate risk management is being addressed in ACRI+ in the context of urban infrastructure and resilience in China, particularly in the city of Lishui.

Implementing an Integrated Climate Risk Management for urban infrastructures, ACRI+ builds upon three major components with the following activities: (1) Identification and analysis of the largest climate risks (i.e. storms, flood, heavy rainfall, etc.) followed by an vulnerability & exposure analysis to identify loss and damage on the society, business sector and fiscal budget; (2) Development and ranking of cost-effective adaptation measures as result of the “Economics of Climate Adaptation” (ECA) approach; (3) Development of risk transfer mechanisms in order to reduce climate impacts on public budgets, individuals and businesses (reduction of financial burden of direct loss of assets and livelihoods). The focus will be on selected hazards and specific urban infrastructure sectors (such as energy, water, etc.) most relevant to the pilot city and the selected hazard.