The Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment (CCRI) has released new technology in Jamaica that is set to help countries that are most exposed to extreme weather events to become more climate resilient.
The Systemic Risk Assessment Tool (J-SRAT), has been developed to help identify “hotspots” across the country’s major infrastructure networks, such as energy, water and transport – most vulnerable to climate risk, ensuring the effective and efficient investment of public and private resources.
In a press release, it states that J-SRAT was designed by Oxford University in collaboration with the Jamaican government and support from CCRI and the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.
With Jamaica’s population, infrastructure and economic assets highly exposed to extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, flooding events and tropical storms, which are expected to become more intense and frequent, the country’s priority is to adapt by building the resilience of its major infrastructure assets.
CCRI noted that hurricanes cause the most physical risks to infrastructure, as they are responsible for US$1 billion of losses annually.
Key features of J-SRAT include its ability to deliver a unparalleled high resolution and visual analysis that accurately identifies hotspots of vulnerability across critical infrastructure.
J-SRAT also contains cutting-edge capabilities that will allow Jamaica to assess practical impacts of increasingly severe weather events on specific services.
In addition, J-SRAT’s ability to accurately calculate the damage and economic losses from future climate risks, will help give both decision-makers and private sector investors the confidence to prioritise infrastructure that will be more “resilient and capable” of withstanding future climate impacts.
Dr Wayne Henry, Director General of the Planning Institute of Jamaica, said: “Given Jamaica’s vulnerability to climate shocks, the cumulative cost over the years and future climate projections, JSRAT is an important data-driven addition to the analytical toolkit to aid assessment of climate risks, particularly with respect to critical infrastructure such as water, transport and energy.
“We anticipate that the combination of the analytical capabilities of this tool along with those of relevant local platforms and the transfer of knowledge to local technical personnel, should help to better guide our decision-making on future location and investment for infrastructure.
“JSRAT is a potential game-changer and we look forward to its utility as the country moves to not only modernise but also to retrofit and harden its infrastructure assets.”
Dr Jim Hall, Professor of Climate and Environmental Risks, University of Oxford, added: “The fundamental goal is to help unlock investment in climate adaptation. With limited resources and mounting needs, the Government of Jamaica will be able to use SRAT’s incredibly granular, precise and practical analytical capabilities to prioritise where infrastructure investment is needed most and attract the scale of private sector finance that has so far been missing until now, not only in the Caribbean but in climate adaptation worldwide.”
Carlos Sanchez, Executive Director, Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment, commented: “The climate crisis represents an existential threat to Jamaica, the wider Caribbean region and globally. As countries race to protect their communities from escalating climate impacts on water, health, energy and supply chains, making infrastructure assets more resilient is vital, but cannot be delivered by the public sector alone.
“Private sector engagement is critical in bridging the existing infrastructure gap, making this technology a major breakthrough not only for Jamaica, but also in helping to meet the world’s future infrastructure needs.”
