02 June, 2016 by Staff Reporter
On Friday 8 April, 2016, The Antarctic Report hosted a conference in New Zealand's largest city, Auckland, called Sea Level Rise: Implementing Adaptation Strategies. The conference brought together international experts, as well as New Zealand’s leading policy makers, scientists and key industry representatives, to showcase effective adaptation strategies to manage the impact of sea level rise in New Zealand.
In the seventh presentation of the series, “Sea level rise and extreme weather events – adaptation, risk and insurance”, Tim Grafton, chief executive of the Insurance Council of New Zealand, focuses on the need to employ adaptation measures to reduce the risks arising from climate change. This is required in order to ensure that insurance remains affordable and accessible in areas that will face increasing risks, and will require central and local government, as well as private sector and community solutions. In performing insurance risk assessments, Tim emphasises the economic prudence of including both rare but very costly events, as well as those events that are more frequent but less damaging.
Tim Grafton is the Chief Executive of the Insurance Council of New Zealand, having been appointed to the position in November 2012. Over the past 30 years, Tim has had extensive experience in the media, government, public relations and market research sectors, including roles as a senior adviser to former Prime Minister Rt Hon Dame Jenny Shipley, the current Minister of Finance, Hon Bill English, and former Finance Minister the Rt Hon Sir William Birch.
Sea Level Rise: Implementing Adaptation Strategies was organised in association with AUT and The Royal Society of New Zealand.