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Adapting to Climate Change: Canada’s Infrastructure Challenge

Adapting to Climate Change: Canada’s Infrastructure Challenge. James Geuzebroek Manager, Media Relations Insurance Bureau of Canada Alberta Emergency Management Agency 2008 Summit October 29, 2008 -- Leduc. Who is IBC?.

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Adapting to Climate Change: Canada’s Infrastructure Challenge

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  1. Adapting to Climate Change: Canada’s Infrastructure Challenge James Geuzebroek Manager, Media Relations Insurance Bureau of Canada Alberta Emergency Management Agency 2008 Summit October 29, 2008 -- Leduc

  2. Who is IBC? • Trade association representing Canada’s private home, car and business insurance companies • Over 200 Companies • $20 billion in claims paid • 108,000 employees • $36 billion in premiums

  3. Role of Insurance • Protects assets against sudden and unforeseen events • Spreads the financial risk • Makes it possible to: • Drive to work • Build or buy a home • Start-up a new business

  4. Our Greatest Challenge:Climate Change • More severe weather occurring more frequently • Affects insurance availability and affordability

  5. Natural Disasters are Costly

  6. Models for Predicting Weather Outdated • Saint John River in New Brunswick: • Three 100-year events in past 35 years • Greater Toronto Area: • Three 100-year events and five 50-year events in past 10 years

  7. Examples of Canadian Weather-related Events Insured Losses: Quebec Ice Storm (1998) $1.6 billion Toronto Rainstorm (2005) $500 million Saguenay Floods (1996) $207 million Peterborough Floods (2004) $90 million

  8. Infrastructure Failure to Blame • Infrastructure failure responsible for most of the damage: • Ice Storm (electric grid) • GTA Rainstorm (sewer/surface water systems) • Saguenay Floods (dams) • Peterborough Floods (sewer/surface water systems)

  9. Aging Infrastructure Contributes to Vulnerability

  10. The Challenge:Not Every Natural Event Needs to Result in Disaster • We must take action now to: • Reinforce/improve infrastructure, in particular our sewer and surface water infrastructure • Improve building codes; employ climatic design values • Revise land use • Improve disaster management

  11. How to Fund Adaptation • Nurture open dialogue • Understand the complexities and realities • Beware of the “do nothing” approach • Privatization/Public-Private Partnership

  12. How do we engage consumers? • Insurance as incentives • Educate individual homeowners • Raise awareness

  13. The Example of the Rain Barrel • Reduces water usage and provides water for garden • Helps manage surface water run-off • Keeps surface water out of the basement • Limits and delays amount of surface water in municipal sewers during rainstorms

  14. 1 RAIN BARREL GALLONS 45

  15. 000 1 RAIN BARREL S 000 GALLONS 45

  16. 2.5 MILLION GALLONS 55000 RAIN BARRELS

  17. In Conclusion – sort of • “Nothing in the world is more flexible and yielding than water. Yet when it attacks the firm and the strong, none can withstand it, because they have no way to change it. So the flexible overcome the adamant, the yielding overcome the forceful.” Lau Tzu

  18. Emergency Response

  19. C.A.M.P

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