Before you conduct a Mitigation Assessment, you should know the steps to make it a success. Part I covers the steps to track risks, prioritize them, and analyze their impact on the macro-economy. Part II covers the steps to implement the mitigation options. This part is critical for determining the business impact of each mitigation option. This step is usually done in two stages. The first one is identifying the risks and the second is conducting a Mitigation Assessment.
Part I
When preparing a mitigation assessment plan, the planning team should identify potential funding streams, mitigation projects, and technical capabilities. For example, mitigation projects can be funded through federal grants or other sources of funding. This process can help identify gaps in response capabilities, take credit for existing mitigation activities, and identify structural changes needed to institutionalize mitigation. It may also suggest eliminating some mitigation options due to barriers to implementation. A mitigation assessment plan is a critical part of developing an effective disaster risk reduction plan.
To make the most out of the assessment, the countries should structure it to meet the needs of the various stakeholders. In-country stakeholders are likely to be policy makers and scientists. They can benefit from the compilation of data and analysis of the results, and access to new models for other types of analysis. Potential stakeholders may also include regional organizations and the NGO community. This initial assessment should address the most critical topics. Once this initial assessment is complete, a more detailed evaluation of various mitigation options can be carried out.
Prioritize risks
Once you have identified the highest-risk items, you can begin to prioritize the necessary work. Depending on the risk level, issues may snowball into bigger problems, which will necessitate corrective actions. A risk matrix allows you to chart risks based on their impact, likelihood, and severity. By assigning different risk levels to each item, you can ensure that the highest-risk items get the highest priority.
The most important thing to consider when using the risk priority approach is the decision and the type of risk. A risk can be both acceptable and unacceptable, and each area has different risks. It’s important to recognize that a high-risk event can result in the loss of critical operations or a data breach. A low-risk risk can be a minor budget overrun. It is important to prioritize risks based on their probability and impact on the organization.
Track risks
Track risks in mitigation assessment is essential to minimize the impact of potential hazards. It helps determine the importance of risks and how to manage them. If a risk is small, it may not be worth addressing, and large risks may need extensive mitigation planning. Risks should be classified according to their likelihood, impact, and probability, so that mitigation plans can be prioritized and developed. A risk register records each risk mitigation action taken. If a risk is high, it is better to implement the mitigation plan immediately, rather than delaying it.
Risk management requires periodic review. The management plan must be updated to reflect changes in assumptions, premises, and environments. This may require the addition of new mitigations, or it might be necessary to adjust existing strategies. Monitoring risk mitigation activities is an integral part of any successful risk management program. And since each risk has a different impact on the business, the mitigation plan must be flexible and effective to minimize any damage. The risk mitigation plan should be reviewed periodically to determine if new strategies are necessary.
Analyze impact of mitigation options on macro-economy
In order to determine the costs and benefits of different mitigation options, we must first understand how these policies affect the global economy. We can do this by establishing temperature-cost-trade-off curves that relate the costs of mitigation to the maximum increase in global temperature until 2100. As the maximum temperature increases, the costs will increase disproportionally and the maximum achievable climate target will decrease. The more stringent our climate-change targets are, the higher the costs of mitigation, and the lower the level of economic opportunity costs that can be achieved.
In the Reference scenario, economic activity and emissions gradually decouple. By 2050, GDP growth will be nearly twice as fast as emissions, with GDP growing by 2.7% per year. The benefits of this scenario come in the form of lower costs associated with support schemes and recovery. In the long run, a full decoupling of economic activity from GHG emissions will occur in most major developed economies, particularly those that adopt aggressive NDCs and adopt climate policies.