Theme: Climate change

What next for climate resilience after cop23?

World Water Day: Why tackling flooding remains a sustainability priority

Water-based crises are once again being thrust into the international spotlight on World Water Day. Yet, after decades of attempts – and billions wasted – flooding remains widely unaddressed by business and governments alike. The facts make grim reading. Research by Oxford Economics, commissioned by the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP), reveals the rate of severe […]

Water Window Challenge Winners Announced

Twelve innovative projects will share a US$10 million competition pool to tackle flooding in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities. The partnership between the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) and Z Zurich Foundation of Zurich Insurance, sees grants of up to US$1m awarded to teams offering innovative solutions to issues affecting flood-prone communities in the […]

COP22 – Acting together for true resilience

I am pleased to be writing to you from COP22 in Marrakesh, a conference that draws together governments and organisations from around the world to discuss the most effective ways of implementing the Paris Agreement on climate change. This year, the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) is in attendance, spreading the message that resilience stakeholders must […]

Water security: huge climate risk, huge business opportunity

The Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) plans to help millions of vulnerable people better adapt to shocks and chronic stresses and thrive in a more resilient future In 2011 in Pakistan, over 5.4 million people – including 2.7 million children – were affected by monsoon rains and flooding, and this number was expected to rise (Pic: […]

WeRobotics – Robots to the rescue!

At last month’s General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA) meetings in New York, partners agreed to mobilize and accelerate action for building climate resilience. The platform for this mobilization is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s initiative on Climate Resilience known as A2R (Anticipate, Absorb, Reshape) which was launched at the Paris Climate Conference in 2015. […]

Stage One Water Window Challenge Finalists Announced

Stage One Water Window Challenge Finalists Announced I am delighted to announce that 16 Stage One finalist teams have been selected to move on to Stage Two of the Water Window Challenge – a competition which gives those bold enough to find innovative resilience-based solutions to extreme weather the financial backing to turn their plans […]

Take a fluid approach to build fresh water resilience

Water is a dynamic and variable resource, with shifting and changing states and flows. In one of our more foolish endeavors, however, rather than embrace this dynamism, humans have continually tried — and failed — to control water. We succeed — for a time. Sometimes even for decades. But these are pyrrhic victories, and water […]

Taking the fight to the floods

Natural disasters come in many different forms, yet their devastating impact on vulnerable communities remains the same. Worryingly, what also remains the same is today’s aid and development approach, and the way it fails to successfully address these disasters. Floods cause more damage worldwide than any other type of natural disaster, costing the global economy […]

Innovative visions: A look through the WaterWindow

Floods hit upwards of 250 million people each year, causing more economic and human losses than any other kind of natural hazard. The situation is not getting any better. Of the 15 most costly insured natural and man-made catastrophes since 1974, 12 have occurred since 2000 — and 10 of the 15 have involved flooding. […]