1. ADAPTING TO A CHANGING CLIMATE IN
THE MANAGEMENT OF WILDFIRES
Session 6: Roundtable Discussion
Paris, 17 January 2020
2. Science insights and gaps
• New normal. New normal is bigger, faster, and more frequent wildfires, with several
socio-economic impacts difficult to manage.
• The relation between fire and climate will change in the future but we still do not
understand how it will change
• Science should support the development of integrated fire management as well as to
help transform operational procedures.
• Increase growth between the interactions humans and fires increases the problem.
• Difficult to access the socio-economic costs and conveying the economic value of
investing in fire prevention
• Innovation is important and needed, but not only technological innovation focusing
on forecasting and monitoring but also institutional and social innovation.
• To make valid predictions we need: data, models and skill, these are essential for
better predictive services, data and warnings.
• Find better ways for communicating fire risks and the benefits of fire prevention
3. Policy insights and gaps
• Opportunities
– Policies need to keep up with unprecedented challenges
– Confluence of 3 policy areas and communities: environment
(adaptation to CC), agriculture (forest management), civil protection
– Uneven level of sophistication of policy responses across countries
– Embryonic collaboration on policy at international level
• Options for further work
– Develop policy guidance
– Strengthen the economics
• The economic case for public investment
• Return on investment in prevention. The value of fuel treatment
• Distributional issues (exposure, vulnerability, resilience)
• Allocation of risks
– Review national responses (policy, institutional arrangements)
– Share experience
4. Insurance and financing insights & gaps
• Wildfire as a “new” catastrophe peril:
– catastrophe insurance “infrastructure” is under development
– transition risks for consumers
• Insurance contribution:
– financial protection
– risk assessment
– risk reduction (?)
• Insurance is not only risk transfer mechanism – economy (or)
public sector absorb uninsured (residual) risk
• Residual risk likely to increase in a changing climate
Public policy challenge: identifying the most cost-effective
way to share these increasing risks, taking into account the
risk reduction encouraged by different approaches
5. Questions for plenary discussion
What are the most significant areas of uncertainty in wildfire risk
management? What can be done to address those gaps in knowledge?
What are the main challenges affecting policy responses (lack of
knowledge, split incentives, trade-offs and inconsistent priorities…)?
What are the main areas, where international cooperation can add
value (sharing information and knowledge; identifying and sharing
good practices; coordinated action)?
How can the OECD and PLACARD help address gaps in knowledge,
policy responses and international cooperation?