CLIMATE change has rapidly become one of the world’s greatest challenges. Everyone from government to business is taking action to tackle its effects and reduce greenhouse gas emissions that result from the burning of fossil fuels.

The urgency is steadily intensifying as environmental experts around the world are seeing the effect of intensifying weather events. Record rainfall, drier droughts, and longer periods of life-threatening heat are just some of the weather patterns that are having a devastating impact on countries around the world in recent decades.

This past September, Jamaica’s prime minister, Andrew Holness addressed world leaders at the seventy-third United Nations General Assembly on climate change and the need to achieve sustainable economic growth – key for Small Island developing States. Since the global financial crisis in 2008, there have been improvements to global growth and levels of unemployment have fallen. However in many developing economies like those spread out across the Caribbean, there has been uneven growth. For Jamaica in particular, economic growth has encountered challenges, including those linked to climate change and extreme weather events.

Hurricane Irma caused catastrophic damage across the Caribbean in 2017 as it was the most powerful Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, causing one of the largest humanitarian catastrophes in history. Holness remarked that the devastation wreaked on Dominica by this hurricane could be compared to a nuclear event. The global cost of climate-related disasters was US$320 billion last year.

In the public sector, many government departments work together in disaster response to save and sustain live protect livelihoods. The consequences of not being able to recover from a natural disaster in a timely manner can include loss of reputation in the eyes of the public and government departments, inability to provide timely reporting, and the loss of public confidence.

Organisations need to have a robust disaster risk management plan in place. This includes asset and threat identification, quantifying the potential losses, assessment of vulnerabilities, and evaluation of counter measures. It should also include definition of incidents and crisis assessment criteria, the proper escalation procedure, and the roles and responsibilities of the crisis management team. Without effective plans in place, businesses can find it difficult to respond immediately. But it’s important to remember that a plan only works as a safety net to mitigate the impact of a disaster.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business-observer/about-climate-change_148319