Klimatresiliensdeklarationer - en standardiserad bedömning av klimatrisker i fast egendom
2023 (Swedish)Report (Other academic)
Abstract [en]
Climate resilience certificates – a standardized assessment of climate-related hazards in real estate
In 2021, heavy rainfall in the Swedish city of Gävle caused severe flooding, affecting many of the real estates in the area. As to date, insurance companies have paid more than one billion SEK in compensation to the affected property owners. The distribution of damage was uneven, making it clear that the individual preconditions of each affected property had a substantial impact on the degree of experienced damage. This sparked a discussion about the risk of natural disasters in the light of climate change on mortgages and insurances and whether more consideration should be given to the individual conditions of a property, rather than relying on general area-based risk maps where all properties in one area are assessed similarly. In many cases, small measures can have a substantial effect on the degree of climate-related hazards tied to natural disasters. In Sweden, the responsibility to undertake measures to decrease such risk today lies with the real estate owner. However, many real estate owners lack relevant information on how to assess their property’s risks to natural disasters as well as hands-on recommendations on how to mitigate that risk. At the same time financial institutions, insurance companies, and many other actors face new European and national legislation that requires them to understand, measure, remedy, and give an account for their risks tied to this area. In the case of lenders assessing the risks to their collateral at an individual property level, the ability to get an overview is limited. At best, risks can be described on an area level only, meaning that the individual conditions of the property are being not considered. In this report, we have explored whether a standardized classification system, a so-called climate resilience certificate (CRC), that outlines the individual risk exposure of a real estate, could be a potential solution to this problem – if it would be both easy to use by private homeowners and meet the needs from professional actors. To test the idea, we have performed a case study applying the system to the events in Gävle 2021. We suggest further work on the feasibility of a, preferably European-wide, three-step model of a CRC taking into consideration all acute and chronic physical climate-related hazards described in EU-law. The first step of the classification is based on a data-based screening tool resulting in preliminary assessment, ranging from green to yellow and red. The second step is an in-depth assessment conducted by a certified climate expert who collects data through an on-site inspection of the property and/or an examination of documentation, resulting in a classification ranging from A to G, together with suggestions on climate adaptation measures that could be taken to decrease risk. In the third step, the data is made available to the real estate owner and, to a limited extent, other relevant actors. A CRC could facilitate and improve climate adaptation efforts made by real estate owners by (i) making it clear, on an individual property level, which real estate owners ought to take measures (and in certain cases get support thereto) to decrease risk and (ii) creating an incentive to take these measures from lenders, insurance companies and investors.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2023. , p. 55
Series
RISE Rapport ; 2023:5
Keywords [en]
climate resilience certificate, climate adaptation certificate, climate resilience declaration, rating system, rating tool, climate, climate adaptation, risk, risk classification, real estate
National Category
Natural Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-64052ISBN: 978-91-89757-48-6 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-64052DiVA, id: diva2:1738353
Note
Denna rapport är resultatet av det av Vinnova och Gävle kommun finansierade projektet Förstudie kring klimatresiliensdeklarationer.1 Projektet tillkom efter översvämningarna såväl i Sverige (bl.a. Gävle och Tranås) som i omvärlden (bl.a. Tyskland) sommaren 2021 med syfte att utreda om en klimatresiliensdeklaration kan vara en del i lösningen på hur samhället kan anpassas för att möta nuvarande och ett förändrat klimat.
This report in English: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-65531
2023-02-212023-02-212024-02-23Bibliographically approved