Economics of climate adaptation study for the Caribbean

ReliefWeb: On 12 and 13 May, over 40 representatives from Caribbean and international agencies will meet in Barbados to discuss the initial results from a recent investigation into the Economics of Climate Adaptation (ECA) in the Caribbean. This study, funded by the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility as part of its technical assistance programme, was launched in February to enable the development of a fact base for developing sound climate change adaptation strategies in the region.

Climate change is considered to be the most pervasive and truly global of all issues affecting humanity, posing a serious threat to the environment as well as to economies and societies - the impacts of which are likely to adversely affect sectors such as tourism and agriculture. The focus of this study is on the impact of climate risks and change on a country's infrastructure (including housing), and tourism and travel, agricultural, industrial and services sectors.

Since February, a team composed of Caribbean Risk Managers on behalf of CCRIF, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre and other regional partners, has been intensely involved in data collection and analysis for a number of countries with analytical support provided by McKinsey & Company and Swiss Re.

The workshop, to be held at the Caribbean Development Bank, will provide an introduction to the Economics of Climate Adaptation approach and its application in the Caribbean and will focus on sharing the findings of the study, examining the key insights and results for wind, sea level rise/coastal flooding, inland flooding and salinisation of groundwater.

The final outputs of this study will include a risk baseline which will provide transparency about current and future expected losses from climate risks under three climate change scenarios; and assessment of adaptation measures – identification of feasible and applicable measures to adapt to the expected risks based on quantitative analysis of total cost and expected benefits of risk mitigation and transfer measures….