## books-sharpe

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### Overview and author background
- Title: Risk and Resilience in the Era of Climate Change
- Author: Vinod Thomas
- Publication details cited: Palgrave Macmillan, London, UK, 2023, 201 pp., $27.99
- Basis: Three decades of the author’s work at the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, underpinned by extensive academic research and practical case studies.

### Core argument: systemic resilience and preparedness
- Risk assessment should be thorough and continuous.
- Resilience must be integrated from the outset into:
  - Design of buildings and infrastructure systems.
  - National development strategies.
- Emphasis on preparing, not only responding:
  - Disaster proofing (example): adds less than a tenth to the cost of a new hospital.
  - As climate change progresses, risks that were low-probability, high-impact will become high-probability, high-impact events.
  - Governments must anticipate this shift and continually prepare for larger future risks, not merely repeat past responses.

### Practical measures and systems to reduce climate risk
- Investments recommended:
  - Early-warning systems.
  - Evacuation plans.
  - Institutions governing disaster preparedness and response.
- Examples of resilience-enhancing measures from the text:
  - Raising the base of a house and mixing cement into its earth foundation to reduce flood collapse risk.
  - Backup generators and pumping systems to reduce risk of power and water supply failures, allowing hospitals to continue operating.
  - Robust health systems to reduce post-flood disease risk.
  - Education and communication systems to guide public actions (when to stay home, when to seek higher ground).
  - Functioning public services to increase social trust and improve implementation of disaster response plans.

### Linkage between mitigation and adaptation
- Emissions reduction and adaptation described as intrinsically interdependent.
- Decarbonization framed as an approach to building resilience.
- Time is central: slowing climate change gives more time to prepare and cope with extreme events—analogous to slowing disease spread during the COVID-19 pandemic to avoid overwhelming intensive care units.

### Economic critique and policy perspective
- The mainstream economics profession has been critiqued for insufficient engagement in the campaign for climate action.
- Specific criticisms noted:
  - Leading economics journals are largely silent on the issue.
  - Influential economic models fail to adequately integrate scientific knowledge.
  - The profession promotes a “persistently false dichotomy” between sustainability and growth.
- Policy and paradigm recommendations from the author:
  - Recognize the value of natural capital.
  - Rethink growth in terms of quality rather than quantity.
  - Revise curricula of economics and business schools to teach how growth can be made regenerative instead of destructive.

### Reflections on policy instruments and innovation
- Observation in the book: a shift in thinking on the economics of decarbonization has gathered pace.
- Historical consensus favored carbon pricing as the most efficient solution.
- Newer insights from complex-systems understanding, technology-transition studies, and recent observations suggest approaches centered on investing in new solutions can be more cost-effective for driving innovation and structural change.
- The reviewer notes the book could have pursued further exploration of applying this investment-centered understanding to the transformational adaptation the author argues is needed.

### Usefulness and audience
- The book is full of practical case studies and conceptual frameworks for understanding resilience.
- The importance of the book’s issues will increase as extreme weather events become more commonplace.
- The book is positioned as a valuable guide for those working in the field.

*Source: Book review in F&D (December 2023), page 73.*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2023/december/books-sharpe.pdf_