Risk and Resilience in the Era of Climate Change

This book is distinctive in showing the interaction between rising risks on the one side and the need for raising the bar on resilience on the other, with regard to climate change. Its timeliness lies in applying interactive findings on risk and resilience to runaway climate change. When risk and resilience are brought together in the context of the reality of climate catastrophes, at least three critical insights emerge.
One is that accounting for the root causes of the problem, not just the symptoms, is essential to slowing the spike in climate disasters. It is therefore vital to link carbon emissions from the use of fossil fuels to mounting climate disasters. Another basic recognition must be in all that is done in the name of economic growth. Growth economics must factor in the failure of businesses and governments to tackle global warming. But especially with rising climate risks, this understanding calls for a fundamental revision in the teaching and practice of business and economics. Lastly, prevention must become a far bigger component of resilience building, with greater preparedness for bigger and more frequent catastrophes built in. This stress on prevention sees the recovery from a disaster as not just being a return to status quo but as building better and stronger.