Wildfire-Workshop-Presentation-Roundtable-Discussion

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?

6. http://www.oecd.org/environment/cc/climate-
adaptation/