Here, you'll find a comprehensive collection of key terms and concepts related to climate adaptation and insurance.
Whether you're new to the field or looking to deepen your understanding, our glossary provides clear and common definitions and explanations to help demystify complex terminology. Explore our glossary to enhance your knowledge and confidence in addressing climate challenges.
Hazards
Events or conditions posing risks to life, property, or the environment, encompassing natural disasters and hazardous materials.
Exposure
Crucial data on elements and assets like population demographics, land use, and vulnerable groups, offering insights into potential risks and vulnerabilities.
Vulnerability
The susceptibility of systems to harm from hazards, influenced by factors like infrastructure resilience and socio-economic status, and their ability to cope, recover, or adapt.
Risk
The probability and consequences of an event occurring, considering both hazard likelihood and system vulnerability, are crucial for informed decision-making and risk management strategies.
Extreme Events
Weather or environmental occurrences exceeding historical thresholds, such as heatwaves or floods, often causing significant impacts on communities and ecosystems.
Climate-related data
Vital information on atmospheric conditions, temperature trends, and natural disaster frequency, aiding in climate change impacts assessment and adaptation planning.
Climate-related risk
Risks arising from climate change impacts, including gradual changes like temperature variations and sudden events like storms, highlighting the importance of resilience-building measures and adaptation strategies.
Transition Risks
Risks related to the transition to a lower-carbon economy.
Physical Risks
Risks related to the physical impacts of climate change.
Climate-induced risk
Adverse impacts resulting from the interaction of climate-related hazards with vulnerability and exposure, affecting both human and natural systems.
Damage
Negative consequences of climate change, including physical destruction, economic losses, and environmental degradation, pose challenges to sustainable development.
Losses, indirect and direct
Direct losses entail immediate physical impacts of disasters, while indirect losses encompass secondary effects, contributing to societal and economic impacts.
Risk assessment
Systematic process for identifying, analyzing, and evaluating potential hazards and associated risks, informing decision-making and risk management strategies.
Calibration (modelling)
Adjusting model parameters to match observed data, ensuring accurate predictions of real-world behaviour, crucial for effective risk assessment and management.
NatCat insurances
Coverage designed to protect against losses from natural catastrophes, providing financial support to affected individuals, businesses, and communities.
Long-term risk transfer
Transferring potential future losses over time, typically through insurance agreements, aiding in spreading and managing risk effectively.
Extreme event
Intense weather or environmental occurrences surpassing historical norms, often with high return times and significant impacts on social, ecological, and technical systems, necessitating improved understanding and management approaches.
Disaster loss and indirect and direct losses
Direct disaster losses are quantifiable damages such as infrastructure damage and loss of life, while indirect losses encompass economic declines and impacts on wellbeing due to disruptions in goods and services flow.
Loss and damage in insurance
Refers to the financial and non-financial impacts of insurable events, including economic losses like property damage and livelihood harms, as well as indirect losses and non-economic impacts like loss of life and biodiversity.
Vulnerability
The susceptibility of systems to harm from hazards, influenced by factors like infrastructure resilience and socio-economic status, and their ability to cope, recover, or adapt.
Hazard/Natural hazard
Dangerous phenomena causing various impacts like property damage or harm to life, including natural perils such as earthquakes and floods.
Risk assessment
A structured process of identifying, analyzing, and evaluating potential hazards and the associated risks, followed by determining suitable risk control measures.