Using nature to combat climate-change risk saves money
NEARLY half the world’s population lives near coasts — 3.5bn people. As climate change exacerbates the effects of storms, flooding, and erosion, the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of those people will be at risk. In fact, the latest edition of the World Economic Forum’s World Risk Assessment Report names failure to adapt to the effects of climate change as the single greatest risk, in terms of impact, to societies and economies around the world.
Beyond endangering lives, more frequent and stronger storms could cost billions of euro, owing to infrastructure damage and lost revenues from farming, fisheries, and tourism. And, as the Harvard Business Review recently noted, the projected cost rises with each new study. Yet the international community spends on risk mitigation less than one-fifth of what it spends on natural-disaster response.
