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Managing Climate Risk
Project Expert
About the Project
Once regarded as a threat for the distant future, climate change impacts—more extreme heat and precipitation events, deeper droughts, bigger storms, and sea-level rise—have already caused widespread destruction. Since past greenhouse gas emissions have “baked in” future temperature rise, greater extremes lie in the future, even if the world reduces its emissions to zero tomorrow. Despite the growing threats, governments and the private sector have lagged in building climate resilience, which is the capacity to reduce, absorb, and recover from the impacts of climate change. To build climate resilience, decision-makers must consider future climate risk in operational and strategic planning as well as in making long-term investments. Through roundtables, op-eds, and briefings, I examine resilience efforts around the globe, identify essential considerations for increasing preparedness, and explore the societal transformations that a changing climate demands if humans are to thrive in a warming world. This work informed the writing of my book The Fight For Climate After Covid-19, which explores the lessons the COVID-19 tragedy offers for building climate resilience and guiding decision-making in the face of increasing catastrophic risk.
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The UN climate summit delivered on a loss and damage fund, but it fell short on goals to reduce emissions and avoid the worst consequences of climate change.
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Billion-dollar disasters such as Hurricane Ian are on the rise in the United States. Officials should take swift action to reduce the damage and protect Americans.
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The Inflation Reduction Act promises the largest investment in climate action in U.S. history—$370 billion—and could lead to significant emissions reductions over the next decade.
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The Supreme Court’s decision on the EPA also undermines Biden’s leadership in the global fight against climate change.
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COVID-19 exposed the world’s failure to prepare for the worst—can we learn to build back better?
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To combat climate change, governments and institutions should increase their funding to poorer nations to pay for adaptation and mitigation measures.
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CFR experts illustrate the trends to track in the coming years.
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President-Elect Joe Biden’s appointment of John Kerry to a newly created climate envoy position shows that he is committed to returning the United States to its status as a global leader on climate change.
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Fires in California and Oregon have been more devastating than ever before, but climate change means the worst is yet to come. Here’s how officials can prepare.
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The coronavirus pandemic has reduced global carbon emissions, but that progress won’t last unless governments act to reduce emissions permanently and prepare for future disasters.
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Although local communities decide where and how development occurs, the federal government pays for those decisions when disaster strikes. In the face of climate change, the federal government should insist on local risk reduction measures.
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Warming temperatures mean that Australia will likely continue to suffer from massive bushfires. To reduce future damage, the government must act.
