COVID-19

November 16, 2020

CDP: Almost 10,000 companies worldwide disclosed environmental data in 2020

Business Green Staff

Record numbers of companies, cities, states, and regions have reported their climate change, water security, and deforestation data to CDP in 2020, despite the disruption caused to the global economy by COVID-19.

November 16, 2020

Banks around world in joint pledge on ‘green recovery’ after Covid

Fiona Harvey

Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock

COVID-19, Finance sector, Green recovery

The world’s publicly financed development banks have pledged to tie together their efforts to rescue the global economy from the Covid-19 crisis and the climate emergency, using their financial muscle to assist a green recovery for poor countries.

November 2, 2020

United in Science report: Climate change has not stopped for COVID19

World Meteorological Organization (WMO) under the direction of the United Nations Secretary-General to bring together the latest climate science related updates from a group of key global partner organizations – WMO, Global Carbon Project (GCP), UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO-IOC), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Met Office.

Pixabay

Climate Change, COVID-19, Disease, Ecological Impacts, Economic Impacts

Climate change has not stopped for COVID19. Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are at record levels and continue to increase. Emissions are heading in the direction of pre-pandemic levels following a temporary decline caused by the lockdown and economic slowdown. The world is set to see its warmest five years on record – in a trend which is likely to continue – and is not on track to meet agreed targets to keep global temperature increase well below 2 °C or at 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.

September 15, 2020

To Beat the Coronavirus, Build a Better Fence- Opinion Piece

Tomás Pueyo with Nathaniel Lash and Yaryna Serkez

Illustrations by Annie Jen

COVID-19, Decision-making, Policy, risk, uncertainty

No country has been able to control the virus without a “fence”- policies like travel bans, quarantines, or checkpoints that countries or states put in place to keep out infections. Fences are not enough to stop the virus on their own, but they’re a necessary part of the solution. European countries and U.S. states had hoped otherwise, but they opened their arms to their neighbours too soon and got infected in the hug. As long as states fail to control their borders, the coronavirus will come back. Although Riskthinking.Ai’s scenarios typically map out climate-related financial risks, the same methodology is currently helping Canadian policy-makers confront the radical uncertainty of COVID-19. Please navigate to the Case Study page on the Riskthinking.AI website to learn more.

September 4, 2020

A Supercomputer Analyzed Covid-19 — and an Interesting New Theory Has Emerged

Thomas Smith

zhangshuang/Getty Images

Technology, COVID-19

Earlier this summer, the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee set about crunching data on more than 40,000 genes from 17,000 genetic samples in an effort to better understand Covid-19. Summit is the second-fastest computer in the world, but the process — which involved analyzing 2.5 billion genetic combinations — still took more than a week.

August 24, 2020

Preventing Future Waves of COVID-19

Sarun Charumilind, Matt Craven, Jessica Lamb, and Matt Wilson

Behaviour Change, Adaptation, COVID-19, Decision-making, Future, Health, risk, uncertainty, Vaccine

The success of responses to COVID-19, and other global threats for that matter, hinges on the ability of humans to rapidly learn and change their behaviour. Riskthinking.ai’s forward-looking scenarios tools help decision-makers better understand the risks, and related costs, they face when it comes to threats like a global pandemic, and identify the kinds of behaviours and supportive policies that will have the biggest positive impact.

August 12, 2020

Climate risk and response in Asia: Research preview

Jonathan Woetzel, Oliver Tonby, Mekala Krishnan, Yuito Yamada, Dickon Pinner, and Ruslan Fakhrutdinov

Climate Change, COVID-19, Decision-making, Economic Impacts, Future, Green recovery, risk

COVID-19 is highlighting the importance of risk and resilience, and as the world focuses on recovery, it is important to not lose sight of climate risk. The Earth’s climate is changing after more than 10,000 years of relative stability, and Asia is on the front line. Climate science tells us that, absent adaptation and mitigation, the climate hazards the region faces in the future, from heat waves to flooding, are likely to be more severe, more intense, or both. The impacts in Asia in some cases could be more severe than in many other parts of the world. As Asia seeks to grow its economy—and remain a key source of growth for the world—climate is thus a critical challenge that the region will need to manage.

August 4, 2020

How the Pandemic Defeated America

Ed Yong

COVID-19, Decision-making, Green recovery, Health, risk, uncertainty, Vaccine

A virus a thousand times smaller than a dust mote has humbled and humiliated the planet’s most powerful nation. America has failed to protect its people, leaving them with illness and financial ruin. It has lost its status as a global leader. It has careened between inaction and ineptitude. The breadth and magnitude of its errors are difficult, in the moment, to truly fathom. It’s what happens in the complete absence of risk thinking.

July 31, 2020

How the Shaw Festival kept 500 people employed during COVID — by taking out pandemic insurance three years ago

Callum Marsh

COVID-19, Decision-making, Insurance, risk, uncertainty

As a result of a risk analysis exercise that was undertaken over three years ago, the Shaw Festival took out an insurance policy against the threat of a pandemic, which has saved the jobs of 500 employees. Riskthinking.ai develops tools for just this kind of risk analysis, supplying clients with the powerful advantage of better decision-making in the face of extreme uncertainty.

July 27, 2020

The coronavirus effect on global economic sentiment

COVID-19, Economic Impacts

In North America and developing markets, respondents’ economic outlook is less favorable than in June. Across regions, views are more uncertain on COVID-19 recovery but more hopeful on company prospects.

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