Chatham House Sessions

Designing Climate Risk Assessments for Decision Makers (closed)
24 September , 3-4 pm

Chatham House is leading a consortium that seeks to better understand the different types of direct, indirect and systematic climate risks, and how these considerations can be embedded in policy making in China as well as internationally.  In the climate risk assessment part of the programme, the first step will be to undertake a holistic and succinct overview of the major climate risks in the categories of global emissions and direct and indirect risks of climate change, which are already well documented in the existing literature. The second part will include an expert elicitation exercise centred on a small selection of geographically specific cascading and systematic risks, which arise from global direct climate risks that are most likely to manifest in the near term. These cascading risks will be sourced from geographic- and sector-specific experts, and are less well documented generally, as they emerge from the interdependencies between various complex systems, which require experts from various disciplines and sectors to map their likelihoods and impacts.

This meeting included experts from academia, governments, international agencies and think tanks who have been - or are currently undertaking - global climate risk assessments. During this meeting, experts shared methodologies and discussed their expected outcomes and limitations with the aim of increasing co-operation and avoiding repetition.

Moderator
Daniel Quiggin, Senior Research Fellow, Chatham House

Speakers

  • Kirsty Lewis, Climate Security Team Leader, UK Met Office
  • Nigel Arnell, Professor of Climate System Science, University of Reading
 
 

Embedding Climate Risk in International Institutions and Policy
This session is co-hosted by E3G.
25 September, 2-3 pm

Our world is highly interconnected via human mobility, trade, supply and value chains, business operations, financial flows and information networks. Systematic risks, characterised by cross-sectoral cascading impacts that reverberate across geographical and political boundaries, are increasingly being recognised. Such risks are likely to result from a chain-sequence of interconnected failures, and will be greatest where there are high levels of interconnectedness and interdependence, exposures, hazards, and vulnerability.

This workshop brought together academics, researchers, as well as national and international policy makers to discuss the extent to which direct, indirect and systematic climate change risks have been included in international policies, and how successful – and unsuccessful – this has been. Furthermore, the workshop addressed near-term opportunities for further collaboration to ensure that future policies fully consider climate change risks.

Moderator
Oli Brown, Associate Fellow, Chatham House

Speakers

  • Anette Mikes, Associate Professor, Saïd Business School and Fellow at Hertford College, University of Oxford
  • Ebrahim Gora, Head of Strategic Planning, UN Environment Programme and Chair of the UN Strategic Planning Network
  • Alice Hill, Senior Fellow for Energy and Environment, Council on Foreign Relations, formerly National Security Council, the White House
This event can be re-watched here.