As the days shorten and the crisp autumn air settles, RECEIPT has brewed a reading list to peruse by the fireside.In the third instalment of our Reading Recs, our experts got inspired by climate services and financial aspects of climate change. Get your tea, your favourite reading playlist and jump in!
The future of climate services
Climate services provide essential scientific information to assist decision-making. It can enhance resilience and uncover new opportunities in the face of climate risks. In studying climate change hotspots for RECEIPT, Rohit has been thinking a lot about successfully communicating impacts to stakeholders from at-risk sectors. This has gotten him reading on the future goals, challenges and direction of the field of climate services. A One Earth publication exploring the priorities to advance climate services has helped him form new ideas on how translate climate change information to society more effectively.
A trillion dollar study
Recently, Fujin has been reading about the financial impacts of natural disasters. One study that she found particularly interesting is a report from the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies where they simulate the financial impact of 6 hypothetical ‘trillion dollar’ catastrophes.
“Although we haven’t experienced such ‘trillion-dollar’ catastrophes yet, it is likely to happen in the future with the increasing climate change risk,” Fujin believes. This study is the very first attempt to examine the potential economic and financial impact of natural disasters on a global scale.
An expensive understimation
Lin is part of RECEIPT’s team working on the financial impacts of climate change, where she is modelling various economic sectors. A blog that stuck with her was published by the Environmental Defense Fund. It explores how we underestimate the costs of climate change, and why it matters now. It states that most models are not able to value future well-being and non-monetary factors, thereby producing predictions that are much too low. This is something that Lin and her colleagues are working to change.
Published on : 04 October 2021