Climate Risk and Resilience in China (CRR)

China ranks first in the world in expected annual GDP losses from climate-induced natural disasters. At the same time, China has experienced an unprecedented level of rapid urban growth. The combination of urban growth and climate vulnerability poses significant challenges to China’s sustainable development.

The Climate Risk and Resilience in China (CRR) project aims to enhance the climate resilience of China’s urban centres and their rural surroundings to reduce human and economic losses. To this end, the project partners, GIZ and Swiss Re, have formed a Strategic Alliance (STA) that advises local and national-level partners on building climate resilience. Through an Integrated Climate Risk Management (ICRM) framework, the project will empower local pilot cities to identify climate hazards, exposures, and vulnerabilities. Grounded in the improved understanding of the specific climate risk, the project will propose science-based cost-benefit adaptation solutions that will enable pilot cities to respond to this risk. Finally, risk transfer solutions (i.e., insurance) will be developed for those risks that cannot be mitigated via preventive measures. By incorporating comprehensive socioeconomic impacts, local governments are enabled to apply climate adaptive, risk-informed measures for selected cities and their rural surroundings to protect assets, businesses, and individuals.

Building capacity among national and local partners through case studies, technical workshops, and trainings is a significant element to advising pilot city government agencies to engage in forward-looking climate-resilient urban planning. Additionally, the knowledge and experience gained from the project will be effectively communicated and promoted not only in China, but also regionally and throughout the world. The intention is to use China as a successful demonstration case for peer-learning and upscaling in the Asian region to promote climate resilience and reduce economic and human losses.