Flood risk and resilience under climate change – Is Europe up to the job? Video

Climate change leads to an intensification of the water cycle with more frequent and longer lasting droughts on one side and extreme flood events caused by intense rainfall on the other. The devastating floods in Western Europe last year, leaving over 200 people dead and causing the highest economic damage from a natural hazard event on record, are now followed by a recording breaking drought, affecting Europe’s energy supply, food production and transport links. These events underline the importance of adaptation and resilience across Europe towards the increasing hydrological extremes predicted for the coming years and decades.

This webinar sheds light on the current challenges around flood risk management, resilience and climate change adaptation in Europe from different angles including academic, industry and NGO perspectives. The presentations will provide an overview of current flood risk hotspots, learnings from recent flood events, community flood resilience and the role of insurance in climate change adaptation across Europe. The goal of the webinar is to facilitate a cross-sectoral learning on current challenges in flood risk management and climate change adaptation and what needs to be done to make communities in Europe more flood resilient under a changing climate.

The event was hosted by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (GRI) at the LSE with participants from Marsh McLennan (MMC), Zurich Insurance and the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII).

Chair:

Swenja is Managing Director Climate and Sustainability at Marsh McLennan Advantage, a member of the UK’s Committee on Climate Change – Adaptation Committee, and Chair of the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative. She also holds a research post at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, part of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Speakers:

• Claudio Saffioti (Research Manager Marsh McLennan Advantage Insights)
• Michael Szoenyi (Flood Resilience Programme Lead, Zurich Insurance)
• Sara Mehryar (Research Officer, GRI-LSE, Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance)
• Viktor Roezer (Research Fellow, GRI-LSE, Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance)
• Soenke Kreft (Executive Director, Munich Climate Insurance Initiative)