Colossal fires are now a yearly occurrence in California and Australia and during the last twelve months Northern Europe and Australia were hit by floods of an unprecedented magnitude for these regions. The impact of climate change is increasingly being felt. In the context of a geopolitical chessboard further fractured by recent events, the already daunting US$9.2 tn yearly bill to keep temperature increase under 1.5c looks even more difficult to foot. What if we fail?
As part of the Ambition Net Zero Webinar Series, the INSEAD Netherlands Energy Club is pleased to produce a webinar about a topic less discussed but increasingly important – climate resilience. The series, co-hosted by the INSEAD Alumni Global Energy club together with the National Energy Alumni clubs, saw 3000+ subscribers to their webinar events focused on Transition in 2021.
In the event of >2c rise in the temperature:
a) In the worst case scenarios, what does Climate Resilience look like?
b) How do we as a global economy manage?
c) What are the implications of such a degree rise?
d) What does climate resilience mean to me and the strategy of the business I lead? What opportunities and threats emerge?
e) What does a structured approach to managing climate resilience look like in my business environment?
We will be exploring these questions and much more in our Webinar series with following distinguished guests:
Pier Vellinga
Pier Vellinga (1950) graduated at Delft Technical University (1976) with a phd in coastal erosion during storm surges. In 1988/1989 he organized the first ever international ministerial conference on Climate Change in 1989. In 1990 he joined the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam with a chair in Climate Change. His research and publications included an argued target of keeping climate change well below 2 degrees C in 1990. He was one of the co-founders and bureau members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for which he and his IPCC colleagues received the Nobel Peace Price in 2007. He joined Wageningen University in 2007 as scientific director of the National Program on Climate Change. His research and scientific publications (more than 200) focus on the societal implications of climate change in the fields of water, energy and food. Sea level rise has always been a key topic. He has been an advisor to the Venice Water Authorities for more than thirty years; the protection works were successfully put operation in 2021.
Martin Weymann
Martin heads Sustainability, Emerging & Political Risk Management at Swiss Re. The team integrates environmental, social and governance risk issues into Swiss Re’s business practices and operations, acts as a catalyst for emerging risks and an analyst for political risks. With his team he supports all climate-related aspects at Swiss Re. Martin is a member of the FSB Task Force on Climate-related Disclosures (TCFD). Before Martin was Senior Risk Officer for Latin America based in Sao Paulo with broad responsibility to enhance Risk Management in the region. From 2011 to 2014, he was a secondee at the Institute of International Finance in Washington DC building up the Institute’s insurance industry initiatives. In prior roles at Swiss Re he worked in Risk Management, Underwriting, Asset Management and Sustainability since 2002. Martin holds a MSc in environmental sciences and climate physics from ETH Zurich with further education in scenario analysis and risk communication.
Piet Dircke
Piet Dircke (1958) is the ARCADIS Global Director for Climate Adaptation, with 37 years of global experience in climate adaptation, water management, urban resilience, and coastal flood protection. Piet is currently leading the Arcadis Task Force established after the 2021 European summer floods. He was Platform Partner for the 100 Resilient Cities program, founded by Rockefeller Foundation, from 2015 – 2019, He was a Professor for Urban Water Management at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences 2007 – 2014. Since 2005 he is working in USA on flood protection and climate adaptation projects in cities like New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Houston, Pittsburgh, Norfolk, Honolulu, Miami, and Charleston. In Asia he was active in cities like Jakarta, Singapore, Semarang, Hongkong, Shanghai, Ho Chi Min city, Hanoi, Yangon, and Bangkok.