There is an urgent need for nations, communities, businesses, and individuals to prepare for and adapt to new and emerging risks, including natural disasters, stressors, and other shocks.
Extreme weather events and other environmental stressors present multiple, interacting risks to the well-being of humans and the natural world. These events and stressors include things like hurricanes, wildfires, extreme heat, floods, and sea level rise, and warming seas.
When catastrophic events happen, attention is pushed toward saving lives and rebuilding. But as the frequency and intensity of such events grow, it is increasingly clear that we need to rethink this reactive approach and direct more resources toward preparedness actions that will help communities, companies, nations, and homeowners be ready for and more resilient to future events.
Nicholas Institute experts are creating new resources and developing purposeful partnerships across the public sector, private sector, and civil society to reduce risks and increase the resilience of communities and ecosystems. Among other efforts, experts are working on federal, state, and international resilience policy, engaging with leaders from the insurance and finance industries—both of which have unique capabilities to address risk—to identify how they can help communities counter climate related threats, and exploring market mechanisms that can be used to incentivize resilience action.
