Workshop Information

The workshop was co-sponsored by Munich Re Company and the University of Colorado’s Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, under a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation, “Science Policy Assessment and Research on Climate”. Other contributing sponsors are also the GKSS Institute for Coastal Research and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.

The goal of the workshop was to bring together experts from around the world to summarize and address the following two questions:

1. First, what factors account for the dramatically increasing costs of weather-related disasters (specifically, floods and storms) in recent decades?

2. And, second, what are the implications of these understandings, for both research and policy?

Understanding these topics is of critical importance to decision makers in a range of settings, and we believe that a focused, scientifically strong report can establish a precedent for a similar in-depth consideration of other topics related to climate impacts beyond our specific focus.

All participants were asked to write a short background paper or essay on his/her views of the workshop’s two questions. All participants had an opportunity to speak briefly at the workshop, however, the workshop was organized around discussions and responses to the brief perspectives rather than formal presentations. Participants papers were used in advance as the mechanisms for communicating complex and substantive information.

It is the hope to develop from the workshop a state of the science perspective on the two focusing questions, in full recognition of the possibility that there may be different scientific perspectives on these issues. The workshop organizing team plans to prepare a report and subsequent peer-reviewed publication. View the Final Workshop Report.

The workshop occured for two full days on 25-26 May 2006 at Munich Re's Academy Castle Hohenkammer. The workshop attendance was limited to 32 participants to facilitate discussion and debate.