Scoping

The first step of the risk assessment cycle is to determine context, objectives and criteria, all of which are informed by a pre-defined set of principles. This step is of key importance as it sets the ground for further steps. The following aspects merit consideration:

Implementing principles

A number of principles and aspects may be considered. The Precautionary Principle takes a central role as a point of departure but also the whole CRA journey of a region. A CRA is a fundamental component of CRM capability and a catalyst for transformative change towards adaptation. While these fundamental principles should rather be considered inherent characteristics of a CRA and do not necessarily need active implementation, other principles do. It will be especially important for a region to pursue and guarantee the implementation of Equity and Social Justice aspects of climate risk. Due to the disproportional impacts of climate change and the (un)equitable distribution of benefits from solutions to manage climate risks, it is important to include and guarantee their accomplishment to achieve Just Resilience.

Setting the context

Context setting is key to a CRA. This entails considering governance aspects associated with the process including the exploration of procedural, institutional and legislative conditions for the assessment. Particularly, allocating ownership of the CRA and its outcomes is an important task to tackle in this stage. Also, the identification of relevant stakeholders/actors needs attention which strongly connects to the conceptual pillar of Participatory Processes. Furthermore, available resource including time and capacities should be taken into account.

Definition of objectives

Setting clear objectives of what is expected from the assessment significantly contributes to achieving the main goals. For example, a fully informative value of the CRA may have different implications for an outcome compared to directly feeding into strategies and plans. For this, it can also be helpful to consider expected boundaries of the CRA. While the most important objective remains to clarify which climate risks are threatening a region, other objectives add to the bigger scoping picture. These can entail general considerations about hazards, vulnerabilities and exposures including sectors and societal groups, scenarios and time horizons.