“Natural disasters are coming with more frequency and with more tenacity than ever before and the costs to governments and the communities they support are growing. We mitigate through urban planning, we prepare by developing emergency response plans and stocking supplies, and we respond to emergencies with most support coming from the federal- and state-level. The cost of this approach is untenable.”

A new approach to climate risk has been proposed by the largest member association of local governments in North America - the Government Finance Officers Association - the largest insurance broker in the world and top five reinsurer by gross written premium - Aon - and some presumably very smart scientists from Stanford that have a nonprofit called Probability Managment. Add some support from Pew Charitable Trusts and this looks like a group to listen to.

Joking aside, the approach is compelling and there is a call to action.

We reviewed their approach to climate risk and contextualized it for the non-statisticians of the world. You can read it here.

“This could very well usher in a new era of government risk assessment. This group does not have a proposition to lower world temperatures or change where people are building new communities where 1 in 3 in the U.S. are in the so-called wild land-urban interface, but it does propose a radically more informed way to better secure governments financially and could be used to eventually help communities address climate volatility in a holistic fashion.”