Climate Risk and Real Estate Resilience

The annual UN climate “Conference of the Parties” (COP 30) got underway last week in Belém, Brazil. COP 30 comes against a backdrop of heightened climate risk due to frequent and intense weather events, such as tropical cyclones, floods, heatwaves, droughts and bushfires.

This damage can be quantified in monetary terms, with some estimates putting the average annual loss from climate extreme events in Asia Pacific at around US$780 billion, potentially increasing to US$1.2 - U$1.5 trillion in moderate to worst-case scenarios.

These costs include direct damages from events like flooding and typhoons along with future losses projected to impact a significant portion of the region's GDP.

Climate-related events pose significant risks to real estate assets and surrounding areas. As a result, property investors and occupiers must augment operational resilience to maintain asset value and viability.

This Viewpoint explains how the real estate industry is identifying and mitigating the physical risks associated with the impacts of climate extreme events.