Kathryn Bakos, Managing Director of Finance and Resilience at the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, discusses the pressing challenges posed by climate change, including flooding, wildfires, and extreme heat. She highlights the importance of proactive community and financial sector responses to these crises. Emphasizing the lag in adaptation awareness compared to mitigation efforts, Kathryn explores innovative solutions like updated flood maps, wildfire risk management, and strategies for protecting the most vulnerable populations in urban settings.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Guelph Flood Anecdote
A $30 million flood in Guelph, Ontario, wasn't caused by climate change but by blocked sewer grates.
This highlights the impact of simple preventative measures.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Community Flood Resilience
Communities should update flood risk maps and use AI for dynamic modeling.
Implement flood control systems, combine gray and green infrastructure, and create emergency plans.
insights INSIGHT
Flood Risk Mapping
Publicly available flood risk maps are often outdated, omitting crucial data.
Risk industries use proprietary information for more accurate risk assessment and pricing.
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Kathryn Bakos is the Managing Director of Finance and Resilience at the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, an applied research center within the faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
Our conversation today is all about the inevitable impacts of climate change, including floods, wildfires, and heat waves in particular, as these phenomena are Kathryn's main focus. We talk about the increasing severity of each of these, the preventative efforts that individuals and communities can each take to avoid their worst effects and how risk and insurance industries are navigating these perils. And lastly, we have a conversation about why adaptation measures have seemingly lagged behind decarbonization efforts in the public consciousness about climate change.
In this episode, we cover:
[0:00] Overview of the Intact Centre
[1:30] Canada’s climate vulnerability
[2:44] Kathryn’s career path
[4:00] Major risks: flooding, wildfires, heat waves
[9:59] Responses to flooding: individuals, communities, industries
[16:55] Updating flood maps and using AI
[26:07] Wildfire risks: actions for homes and communities
[34:53] Wildfire insurance and resilience challenges
Inevitable