The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the Insurance Development Forum (IDF), the University of Oxford, and the GEM Foundation have signed an agreement to advance the Global Resilience Index Initiative (GRII) and establish a Global Resilience Hub to help achieve this.
The GRII programme was launched at COP26 in Glasgow to ‘provide reference data on climate and disaster risks to inform and protect populations and economies, both in emerging and developed countries’. It will help countries, financial institutions, and investors, map and quantify their current and future climate and disaster risks and demonstrate the benefits of investing in resilience.
Combining the insurance industry’s foresight and modelling expertise with the best UN and scientific data, the GRII will work with financial institutions and governments and capacity building programmes such as the Global Risk Modelling Alliance to improve the metrics and analysis essential to mobilise finance for adaptation and to better understand potential future loss and damage.
An operational launch of the Global Resilience Index Initiative is planned for COP28 in Dubai (30 Nov – 12 Dec 2023) and the project has been enabled by new in-kind and funding support from Climate Arc, the World Bank, and the ongoing support of the UNDRR, UKCGFI, UK Research and Innovation, and the IDF. Further upgrades are being planned for COP29 in Australia assuming additional resources become available.
GRII patron and UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mami Mizutori, said: “Currently, we know that only about four percent of all official development assistance related to disasters goes into prevention; the rest goes into response and recovery. This is not sustainable in the face of growing climate risks. There must be a rebalance towards investing more in prevention. The GRII helps point to where investment is needed and can have the most impact. By directing investments and resources to reduce climate risks before they create disasters, countries can build a sustainable resilient future for all.”
By December it is expected that the GRII will provide open access data to support solutions to some of the biggest challenges at COP28 including climate adaptation investment and loss and damage implementation.
The worldwide risk modelling collaboration and work with financial institutions is being coordinated by a Global Resilience Hub, hosted by Oxford University. Dr Nicola Ranger, Director of the new Hub and Leader, Resilience and International Development at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, said: “Oxford has a strong record of advancing frontier science to save lives through public private academic collaboration. The data we are collectively building and making available through the Global Resilience Index Initiative is urgently needed to close the gap in investment in adaptation and nature-based solutions to protect people, prosperity and the planet and align finance with climate resilient development. We’re delighted to be working with partners internationally to deliver this important initiative.”
